From a nuclear weapon free Scotland to a nuclear weapon free world

Reaching Critical Will staff and WILPF members participated in Abolition 2000's 18th Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland from 17-18 April 2013. The following declaration was released on 19 April during Abolition 2000's visit to the Clyde Naval Base at Faslane, Scotland.

Abolition 2000 Edinburgh/Faslane Declaration

The participants of the Abolition 2000 Annual Assembly, held in Edinburgh on 17-18 April 2013:

1. Affirm that nuclear weapons are unworthy of civilization, an unacceptable threat to current and future generations, unlawful to use, subvert the cooperation required to address genuine security issues of the 21st century and squander the resources required for a sustainable future;

2. Support the efforts of Scottish citizens and legislators to establish Scotland as a nuclear-weapon-free zone, to reject the nuclear weapons based in its territory, and to codify this in legislation or constitution;

3. Commend the non-violent direct actions undertaken at Faslane to expose the catastrophic threats to humanity and the environment, and oppose the UK nuclear weapons based there;

4. Believe that the growing movement in Scotland to remove the United Kingdom’s nuclear weapons from their home-port in Faslane, the public support in the UK for a nuclear weapons convention, and the absurd costs of maintaining nuclear weapons, make this an opportune time for the UK to abandon plans for Trident renewal, abandon nuclear weapons, and join negotiations for global nuclear abolition;

5. Reaffirm our commitment to achieving the global abolition of nuclear weapons through negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention;

6. Support the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in homes, workplaces, cities, nations and regions as measures to delegitimize nuclear weapons, build security without nuclear weapons and pave the way for the whole world to be a nuclear-weapon-free zone;

7. Welcome the regional NWFZs established in Antarctica, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Pacific, South East Asia, Africa and Central Asia.

8. Support actions to establish additional regional NWFZs in the Arctic, Middle East, North East Asia and Europe, and in particular the convening at the earliest possible date of the UN Conference on Establishing a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction;

9. Affirm that the establishment of NWFZs, particularly in regions of conflict such as the Middle East and North East Asia, provide non-discriminatory approaches to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, and help to resolve conflicts and build sustainable cooperative security;

10. Commend countries that formerly possessed, hosted or welcomed nuclear weapons in their territories, but have now rejected them – including Belarus, Greece, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, South Africa and Ukraine;

11. Call upon NATO nuclear-sharing states to end the deployment of nuclear weapons in their countries;

12. Express outrage at the US$100 billion per year squandered globally on nuclear weapons while policies of austerity are imposed on populations and basic human needs and environmental protection measures are unmet;

13. Call on parliaments and governments to divest public funds from corporations involved in the nuclear weapons industry (as has been done in Norway and New Zealand), and for citizens to close any accounts they have in banks that invest in nuclear weapons corporations;

14. Call on all States to implement the agreement of the 2010 NPT Review Conference to establish the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons;

15. Call on all countries to participate in good faith in the new diplomatic opportunities for the achievement of a nuclear-weapons-free world provided by the Open Ended Working Group established by UN General Assembly Resolution 67/56, the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament scheduled for September 2013 and the series of conferences on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons which began in Oslo in March 2013 and will continue in Mexico;

16. Welcome the recent decision of the Inter Parliamentary Union to engage their membership of over 160 parliaments, including those of most of the nuclear weapon States and their allies, in the topic “Towards a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World: The Contribution of Parliaments”;

17. Affirm the important roles of civic leaders, mayors, parliamentarians and civil society, within the diplomatic meetings and public initiatives, to contribute to the negotiations for nuclear abolition.

This declaration was released by Abolition 2000 at Clyde Naval Base at Faslane, Scotland on 19 April 2013.