April 2015 E-News

This month, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) will celebrate its 100th anniversary. For 100 years, our members have sought an end to war and promoted nonviolent solutions to conflict. For 100 years, we have worked to prevent the development of violent technologies and called instead for the development of norms, principles, practices, and institutions of peace and justice. And while we will gather to celebrate 100 years of peace work in The Hague, we will also be looking ahead, to forge a new peace agenda for the 21st century. Reaching Critical Will is part of this tradition, carrying on WILPF’s work on disarmament and demilitarization around the world. In April we will be part of discussions on autonomous weapons, the arms trade, and nuclear weapons at various forums, organising, advocating, and writing for peace and freedom everywhere we work.

In this edition:

Preventing killing machines
Women’s power to stop war
NPT updates
New publications
Upcoming Events
Recommended Reading

Preventing killing by machines

The use of force has already become too disengaged from moral reasoning, effective oversight, or accountability. Developing and deploying autonomous weapon systems that operate without meaningful human control advances a trajectory that we should be reversing. This is why we are participating in the second meeting on autonomous weapons, as part of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. We are demanding meaningful human control over all use of weapons and a ban on autonomous weapons. We must take a stand for humanity. We are producing a daily newsletter and participating in side events during the meeting and have delivered statement on behalf on WILPF.

Women’s power to stop war

WILPF’s 100th anniversary is set to take place in The Hague from 27 to 29 April 2015. Register today and join us to celebrate 100 years of women’s peace activism and help set the agenda for the next 100 years! In the meantime, you can participate in our webinar series, book a booth for the conference market place, check out our anniversary atlas, and consider donating to support the biggest conference in WILPF’s history!

NPT updates

The ninth NPT Review Conference will be held in New York from 27 April to 22 May 2015. The calendar of side events is almost full and is updated regularly—email info[at]reachingcriticalwill.orgto book the room or have your event listed. After the first week, RCW will produce daily analysis in the NPT News in Review. If you would like any advertisements, articles, or other information published, please submit it to info[at]reachingcriticalwill.org.

Arms TradeTreaty preparations continue

In the lead up to the first Conference of States Parties (CSP1) for the Arms Trade Treaty, a series of meetings are being held around the world to discuss some of the crucial administrative and financial modalities of the Treaty and its conferences. The next meeting will take place in Vienna, Austria on 20–21 April. This will be the fourth preparatory meeting and will have an informal status. At the last meeting that took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in February, it became clear that the division between states on some issues is growing and agreement could be meet on very limited issues. The biggest disagreements, and therefore the main focus of the meeting in Vienna, are the rules of procedure, participation, financing, and reporting. RCW will be at the Vienna meeting and will issue a report at the end. For real-time updates directly from Vienna, follow us on Twitter: @RCW_ and #ArmsTreaty.

Upcoming Events

UN Disarmament Commission

6–24 April 2015 | New York, USA

GGE on information and telecommunications security: third session

13–17 April 2015 | New York, USA

Second Meeting of Experts on autonomous weapon systems

13–17 April 2015 | Geneva, Switzerland

Global Conference on Cyber Space 2015

16–17 April 2015 | The Hague, Netherlands

Vienna ATT Informal Consultation on the first Conference of States Parties

20–21 April 2015 | Vienna, Austria

International Peace and Planet Conference, March, and Rally for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World