November 2018 E-News
International efforts for peace and disarmament are akin to a roller-coaster these days. At one point we‘re riding high with an increased level of attention to gender perspectives on armed violence and disarmament; the next we‘re plunging into deep frustration over the defiant support for nuclear weapons by nuclear-armed states and some of their allies. We despair over nuclear-armed states stepping back from their own arms control agreements, and over heightened tensions amongst these states, demonstrated through accusations and denials in diplomatic fora. But we draw hope from the overwhelming support of the worlds’ countries to eliminate the deadliest weapon of mass destruction for once and for all, yet again illustrated with the adoption of a First Committee resolution on the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), supported by 122 states. We draw hope from 50 countries expressing concern with the humanitarian harm caused by the bombing of towns and cities and demanding action to prevent the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
- Review of the 2018 First Committee
- As ATT approaches 100 states parties, states will focus on gender-based violence prevention
- Talking about the ban
- The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security to be released in December
- Upcoming: CCW and BWC meetings of states parties
- Upcoming events
- Featured news
- Recommended reading
Review of the 2018 First Committee
The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security came to a close on 8 November after five weeks of contentious debate rarely seen with such intensity in this forum. Real world events have generated outright clashes between delegations, and more adverse statements, rights of reply, and voting patterns. Tensions were most pronounced over the United States’ (US) administration’s announcement of its intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, over attribution of the use of chemical weapons use in Syria and elsewhere, over growing belligerance about the use of force or placement of weapons in outer space, and over competing resolutions that sought to determine how the UN will take forward discussions on cyber space.
Fifty-six states delivered an statement on the need to include gender perspectives in disarmament, and to examine how “underlying assumptions about how gender shapes [delegations’] own work and the dynamics of joint disarmament efforts.” This year, 17 resolutions have included gender perspectives, which is unprecedented. Six of those resolutions have included gender language for the first time ever, and three resolutions have made their language on gender stronger.
Apart from monitoring work, the RCW team participated in several side events. RCW’s Director Ray Acheson spoke to the UN Secretary General’s Disarmament Agenda at an event organised by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs; Programme Manager Allison Pytlak spoke at events covering the role of conventional arms control in preventing conflicts and the Arms Trade Treaty’s role in preventing gender-based violence. WILPF Cameroon’s Sylvie Ndongmo spoke at an event on gender, development, and small arms control. Ms. Ndongmo was in New York as part of a WILPF delegation attending events marking the 18th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Resolution 1325, which included women from Colombia, Cameroon, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria as organised by WILPF’s PeaceWomen programme.
As ATT approaches 100 states parties, states will focus on gender-based violence prevention
WILPF and Reaching Critical Will played an active role throughout the ATT negotiations, by providing monitoring and analysis and also advocating for the inclusion of gender-based violence as a legally–binding criteria in the Treaty. We’re pleased at the announcement from Latvia, president of the Fifth Conference of States Parties, that the conference and its preparatory meetings will focus on this aspect of the Treaty as a special theme. WILPF has published guidance and case studies for ATT states parties to support their implementation of this particular aspect of the Treaty implementation, and we look forward to offering our ideas and support in the months ahead.
The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security to be released in December
The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security, to which many WILPF women have contributed, will be released in December 2019. The book brings together scholars, advocates, and policymakers to provide an overview of effective avenues to promote women’s participation in peace and security, to protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence and other human rights violations, to prevent conflict drawing on women’s experiences and knowledge of building peace from local to global levels. Madeleine Rees, Secretary-General of WILPF, Joy Onyesoh, WILPF’s International President from WILPF Nigeria, Reaching Critical Will’s Director Ray Acheson, and Director of Programmes Maria Butler have contributed to various chapters of the book. Within the framework of Women, Peace and Security, they address issues as diverse as the Arms Trade Treaty, Transnational Feminist Networks, and Conflict Prevention.
Upcoming: CCW Meeting of High Contracting Parties and Meeting of States Parties of the Biological Weapons Convention
Amidst First Committee, our Director Ray Acheson has been busy talking about the nuclear ban. She spoke at a Heinrich Böll foundation event in Berlin, “My nuclear button is bigger than yours- A feminist critique of the atomic bomb”. She also provided an article about this subject to the Foundation, and did a podcast interview with the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (to be released soon). Ray also spoke at New York University about disarmament, militarism, and gender and in Princeton at Coalition for Peace Action‘s 39th Annual Conference on Peace.
Next up she’ll be in Toronto on 16 November to speak at an event called Politics of the Possible hosted by Science for Peace, and in Baltimore on 17 November at a conference hosted by Prevent Nuclear War Maryland. In December, she’ll be in Geneva on the 6th to give a TEDx talk on nuclear weapons and feminism as part of the TEDx PlacedesNationsWomen event, and in London the 13th at the London School of Economics‘ Women and Weapons roundtable. All of these talks promote the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and speak to what people can do around the world to help achieve nuclear disarmament. They each offer a feminist analysis of the situation, arguing that nuclear weapons are part of the patriarchy, which needs to be challenged and dismantled at every turn so that we can together build a collective security that works for all! (Photo credit: Ray Acheson)
First International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases
16–18 November 2018, Dublin
12th Conference of CCW Protocol V
19 November 2018, Geneva
20th Annual Conference of CCW AP II
20 November 2018, Geneva
CCW Meeting of High Contracting Parties
21–23 November 2018, Geneva
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
25 November–10 December 2018, Global
17th Meeting of States Parties to the AP Mine Ban Convention
26–30 November 2018, Geneva
Global Forum on Scientific Advances Important to the BWC
3 December 2018, Geneva
Meeting of the States Parties to the BWC
4–7 December 2018, Geneva
Regional meeting on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas
5–6 December, Santiago
TEDxPlacedesNationsWomen
6 December 2018, Geneva
Women and Weapons
13 December 2018, London
At the opening of the Paris Peace Forum on 11 November—the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I—the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "Imagine the consequences of an autonomous system with the capacity to locate and attack, by itself, human beings. I call on heads of state to ban these weapons that are morally revolting." The UN Secretary-General first called for a ban on killer robots the ban earlier in Novmember at a Web Summit in Portugal, in which he stated “For me there is a message that is very clear—machines that have the power and the discretion to take human lives are politically unacceptable, are morally repugnant, and should be banned by international law.”
US government announces its intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
In late October, the US administration announced its intention to leave the INF Treaty, a bilateral arms control agreement with Russia dating from the Cold War that bans the deployment of nuclear weapons with a range of between 300 and 3400 miles. The US government argues that Russia has been violating the Treaty with the development and deployment of a new cruise missile. In its proclaimed attempt to preserve the Treaty, Russia submitted a draft resolution to the UN First Committee one week after the deadline, but a majority of states rejected the resolution to be further considered. Many states and civil society have expressed grave concern at this decision.
The Democratic People’s Republic (DPRK) released a statement on 2 November warning that it could revive to build its nuclear arsenal if the US does not lift sanctions, describing it to be “foolish” that the US believes its strategy of ‘sanctions and pressure’ would lead to denuclearisation.
The US reimposed its last set of sanctions on Iran on 5 November after having withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran earlier this year. Temporary waivers will be granted to eight countries to allow them to continue importing Iranian oil however. Iran’s Foreign Minister signaled that it would be willing to discuss a new nuclear agreement if the US “changes its approach” in addressing the issue, adding that “mutual trust is a requirement.” Russia, China, and the European Union, amongst others, continue to support the JCPOA.
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has launched launched the Cities Appeal, a campaign that engages cities as allies of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The Campaign was launched in front of dozens of mayors gathered at the World Forum on Urban Violence and Education for Coexistence and Peace in Madrid that took place from 5–8 November 2018. Supporter cities so far include Toronto, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Sydney, and Melbourne, while others such as Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki have expressed more general support and are expected to come on board the Appeal soon. (Image credit: ICAN)
November marks the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). The Coalition helped to change the discourse on cluster munitions by bringing a humanitarian perspective to the issue, leading to the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munition (CCM) in 2008. There have been some considerable successes since—120 countries have signed or acceded to the CCM and no state party has used cluster munitions since the Convention was adopted. A total of 1.4 million cluster munitions and more than 177 million submunitions have been destroyed. But challenges remain. New casualties are still occurring, 289 in 2017 alone and civilians accounted for some 99 per cent of these, where status was recorded.
On 30 October, the UN Human Rights Commission released General Comment No 36 on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life. It states that the catastrophic impacts of nuclear weapons are “incompatible with the right to life and may amount to a crime under international law.” It calls on states to take all necessary measures to prevent proliferation and “to refrain from developing, producing, testing, acquiring, stockpiling, selling, transferring and using them, to destroy existing stockpiles, and to take adequate measures of protection against accidental use, all in accordance with their international obligations.” In this regard it cites the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons along with other relevant instruments.
US coalition responsible for majority of civilian casualties in Syria
Action on Armed Violence reports that in October 2018, the US-led coalition was responsible for 46% of civilian casualties from all explosive weapon use in Syria. All reported civilian casualties from airstrikes were perpetrated by the US-led coalition on ISIS-occupied areas in Deir Ezzor, particularly Hajin and Al Sousa.
British Army carries out massive test of military robots and drones
On 12 November a four-week test of over 70 examples of futuristic technology began in the United Kingdom (UK) that includes enhanced surveillance drones and unmanned vehicles on the fields. It is reportedly the largest such test of these types of weapons that the UK has ever conducted.
France launches new call for trust and cooperation in cyber space
As part of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), French President Emmanuel Macron launched the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace on 12 November. It is a high-level declaration on developing common principles for securing cyberspace. While it has already received the backing of 50 states, 90 civil society organisations and university, and 130 private corporations, the US, Russia, and China have not supported it. The Paris Digital Week includes three major events linked to digital technology, occurring alongside the commemorations to mark the centenary of the First World War Armistice and Paris Peace Forum.
Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) launched the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2018, the first report of a newly established watchdog for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) has published a Quick Guide to provide an overview of key outcomes of the Third Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). IANSA also released a Summary providing a thematic overview of the outcome of the Conference.