UK and Netherlands challenged in the Human Rights Council to adopt no-first-use policies
Posted: 4th April 2022
The UK and the Netherlands have been challenged in the UN Human Rights Council to adopt no-first-use policies as one of the measures required to adhere to international human rights law applicable to nuclear weapons.
The challenges are in submissions made to the Human Rights Council last week by a number of civil society organisations, including some of the co-founders of NoFirstUse Global. They were lodged as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands under international human rights law including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Coming at a time when Russia has elevated the threat of nuclear war over the Ukraine conflict, the submissions are a reminder of the importance to address the risks of nuclear deterrence policies, and that Russia is not the only country that possesses nuclear weapons and maintains options to initiate nuclear war.
The submissions argue that the nuclear weapons policies of the UK and Netherlands are in violation of these obligations. (See submission on the Netherlands and the submission on the United Kingdom).
Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom,
Nuclear weapons in the Netherlands
The UK deploys about 160 nuclear warheads (40 on each of their 4 strategic nuclear submarines) which are ready to be fired at any time under policy options to potentially use the nuclear weapons in a wide range of circumstances, including in response to threats from chemical and biological capabilities or emerging technologies that could have a comparable impact.
The Netherlands hosts approximately 20 United States B61 nuclear weapons at its Volkel airbase, and maintains operational measures to ‘deliver’ those nuclear weapons by Dutch Airforce F-16 planes to potential targets for use in wartime.
“In times of high tensions involving nuclear-armed and allied states, plans and preparations for the use of nuclear weapons, including their possible first use in an armed conflict, elevate the risk of nuclear war. This would be a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale exceeding any previous human or natural disaster.”
“A nuclear war would severely curtail the rights of current and future generations, and would threaten human civilization itself. Compliance with the Right to Life with respect to nuclear weapons is therefore an urgent matter, impacting not only the rights of UK citizens and those impacted by UK nuclear tests, but also the rights of all humanity.”
Excerpt from the submission to the Human Rights Council on the nuclear weapons policies and practices of the United Kingdom
Policy recommendations
The submissions make a number of recommendations of policy actions the governments could take in order to conform to the Right to Life. These include adopting no-first-use policies, cancelling plans to renew nuclear weapons systems, taking measures to phase out the role of nuclear weapons in their security doctrines and advancing at the 2022 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference a goal for the global elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2045, the 75th anniversary of the NPT.
If the UN Human Rights Council decides to pick up on the challenges and recommendations in the submissions and direct these to the UK and the Netherlands, the two countries are required to respond.
Similar submissions were made in 2020 and 2021 the Human Rights Council and other UN human rights bodies with regard to the nuclear policies of Russia, the USA, France, Canada, Denmark, Iceland and North Korea, (see Nuclear weapons and the UN human rights bodies), but the issues were not taken up in earnest by the relevant bodies. The increased threat of nuclear war arising from the Ukraine conflict might stimulate the Human Rights Council to make this a much higher priority for the current review cycle.