International Women's Day Statement to the CD
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Vice Minister of Interior and Security delivered a statement to the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on the relationship between security and disarmament. Egypt’s ambassador delivered two statements, one on the prevention of an arms race in outer space and the other on negative security assurances. The current president of the Conference read out theInternational Women’s Day Statement to the CD, after which representatives of Norway, Mexico, South Africa, and the Syrian Arab Republic advocated for a representative of civil society to be allowed to read the statement next year.
Brief highlights
- The Democratic Republic of Congo announced it will soon sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
- Egypt called for legally-binding instruments to prevent an arms race in outer space and to ensure security assurances for non-nuclear weapon states against the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
- The CD president read out the International Women’s Day Statement to the CD, which called for three tracks to peace in the Middle East: political, disarmament, and human security.
Norway, Mexico, South Africa, and the Syrian Arab Republic lamented that a representative of WILPF was not allowed to deliver the statement and urged for debate on the issue of civil society participation in the CD.
Disarmament, security, and multilateralism
Zephyrin Mungongo, Vice Minister of Interior and Security of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, argued that enhancing international security through comprehensive disarmament remains is a major concern for the international community. He noted that conflicts have diminished the practice of cooperation and negotiation, pointing out the irony that the only way to reduce the use of weapons of mass destruction is through multilateral bans on such weapons.
Conventional weapons
Mr. Mungongo also argued that his country has made headway in implementing the UN Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons and at “protecting” its people from anti-personnel landmines. He also indicated his government would soon sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The representatives from Norway and Mexico welcomed this announcement.
Prevention of an arms race in outer space
Ambassador Hisham Badr of Egypt argued that the Outer Space Treaty is insufficient to guard against the weaponization of outer spaceand emphasized the importance of negotiating a new legally-binding and integrated mechanism on outer space. He described transparency and confidence-building measures as complementary but argued a legally-binding instrument is necessary. Ambassador Badr welcomed the Russian-Chinese draft treaty on the placement of weapons in outer space introduced to the CD last year.
Negative security assurances
In a second statement, Ambassador Badr called for the negotiation of a legally-binding instrument that protects non-nuclear weapons states against the threat or use of nuclear weapons. Noting that there is still no treaty on the elimination of nuclear weapons, he argued that steps going beyond nuclear weapon free zones have to be considered to recognize the right of non-nuclear weapon states not to be attacked or threatened by the use of nuclear weapons.
International Women’s Day Statement to the CD
Ambassador Chitsaka Chipaziwa of Zimbabwe, current president of the CD, read out the International Women’s Day Statement to the Conference on Disarmament on behalf of the coalition of women’s organizations that prepared the statement after their seminar on 4 March. This year’s seminar, “Getting To Peace in the Middle East—Changing Threat Perceptions,” was co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Geneva NGO Working Group on Peace, and Femmes Africa Solidarité. As the statement noted, the seminar was composed of a panel discussion on increasing understanding about the culture of fear that is pervasive in the Middle East and an NGO strategy session, “where women and men from more than 30 countries came together to discuss ways to address and change this culture of fear to create a sustainable culture of peace, not to create another roadmap for peace, but how to begin walking down that road.”
The statement emphasized that three parallel tracks are necessary for the consolidation of peace in the area: the political track, including the Arab Peace Initiative; the disarmament track, including the 1995 nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference Resolution; and a human security track, “along which the governments of the region demonstrate their ability to cope with their internal problems and satisfy the needs and hopes of their peoples.” The statement explains,
Without this third track, other states will not be confident that a particular country will remain true to its commitments. In an area that has known so many decades of wars and bitter enmities, confidence that a new situation has come to stay can build only slowly, through the passage of time and the demonstrated ability to solve the problems that history has bequeathed. It will be impossible to maintain and implement this third track—towards shared human security—without the full and active engagement of civil society, and particularly women.
Participation of civil society
Norwegian Deputy Representative Hilde Skorpen congratulated the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) on its seminar, its “tireless efforts at promoting peace and disarmament,” and for being present at the CD’s plenary meetings year after year. She also expressed hope that a representative from WILPF will have the opportunity to deliver the statement next year.
Mexico’s Ambassador Mabel Gómez Oliver, argued, “it would have been more appropriate to have had a representative of [WILPF] directly addressing the Conference on Disarmament. In fact, we regret that in the context of the constructive and positive spirit in which we started our work this year, we were not capable of finding some formula that would have allowed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to address this room formally and directly.” She went on to note, “it is incomprehensible that a body that is even more exclusive, such as the Security Council, has shown greater flexibility and has had a regular interaction with representatives of civil society, whereas this conference continues to reject—I won’t say dialogue with civil society—but just listening to them speaking in their own voice.” She further argued that not only does civil society add value to intergovernmental deliberations but that “civil society has the legitimate right to express its views, its proposals, its concerns and even any disagreements that it might have with governments on the issues before us.”
Counsellor Johan Kellerman of South Africa echoed this perspective, saying, it “is most regrettable and unfortunate that yet once again this Conference has not been able to reach consensus on allowing this particular NGO to address the Conference themselves.” He called for the CD to set aside time to debate and discuss the issue of broader civil society participation in the work of the Conference, “with a view to resolve it sooner rather than later.”
Syria’s Second Secretary Abdulmaola Al Nuqari agreed “that it is regrettable the Conference on Disarmament has yet not been able to settle this matter” and noted the openness of WILPF and its “courage in raising questions which could really lead to a true philosophy of disarmament.” He offered encouragement to WILPF in its work and expressed “much hope that next year we will be able to listen to them presenting their own statement here in the Conference on Disarmament and also listen to other NGOs as well.”
In other business, the CD this morning granted observer status to Angola.
The next plenary meeting of the CD is scheduled for Saturday, 7 March, when it is scheduled to hear from the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov.
- Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will of WILPF