No-First-Use and the NPT Review Conference

Posted: 16th August 2022

Initial success in Subsidiary Body 1
Plus: Upcoming NPT events

The work of NoFirstUse Global to build support at the NPT Review Conference for no-first-use policies has had initial success with the release on Friday (August 12) of the draft report of Main Committee 1 (dealing with disarmament and non-transfer of nuclear weapons) and the draft report of Subsidiary Body 1 (dealing with nuclear risk-reduction, security assurances and disarmament).

The preamble of the Subsidiary Body text, amongst other things, “Reaffirms that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and commits to ensuring that nuclear weapons will never be used again under any circumstances,” while under the operative section: “The nuclear-weapon States and their allies agree to take steps to reduce and eliminate the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security doctrines; for nuclear-weapon States this should include the adoption of no-first use or sole purpose doctrines.”

It is our understanding that this is the first time that no-first-use has been included in a draft negotiating document for any NPT Review Conference.

A task for the remaining two weeks of the NPT Review Conference is to provide lobbying support for the retention of this language in the face of expected opposition from some of the nuclear armed and allied states. We are doing this through private meetings with government delegations and additional events inlcuding those listed below.

Gorbachev/Shultz Legacy Youth Award with Youth Fusion

Tuesday August 16. 11am – 12:30 pm (Eastern Time USA)
UN Conference Room B.
Livestreamed by Basel Peace OfficeA special event with Youth Fusion, the 2022 winners of the Voices Gorbachev/Shultz Legacy Youth Award, and introducing The Bomb: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: a dialogue between George Shultz and Mikhael Gorbachev.

The event will take place in Conference Room B of the United Nations in New York as a side-event of the NPT Rew Conference. It will be livestreamed on Basel Peace Office facebook page and on Youth Fusion social media.

Youth Fusion partners with NoFirstUse Global on various actions and events including the Open Letter to the NPT Review Conference From Nuclear Threats to Human Security. and the social media action Don’t even THINK about starting a nuclear war.
 
Youth Fusion holds Don’t even THINK about starting a nuclear war social media actions outside the United States, Russian and United Kingdom embassies in Prague.

Nuclear Risk Reduction – More Topical than Ever

Friday August 19. 1:15 – 2:45pm
Conference Room B, United Nations, New York
An in-person side event at the 10th NPT Review Conference 

Speakers:

• John Hallam (Australia). Co-convenor, Abolition 2000 Working Group on Nuclear Risk Reduction
• Marc Finaud (France/Switzerland). Senior Fellow, Geneva Centre for Security Policy
• Ivana Nikolić Hughes (United States). President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Columbia University
• Alyn Ware (New Zealand/Czech Republic). Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

Event outline:
In January 2022, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock to 100 Seconds to Midnight, indicating the extreme risks to humanity from nuclear threats, climate change and the rise of disruptive technology and misinformation. Since then, nuclear threats have increased with the Russian invasion of Ukraine accompanied by missile tests and provocative nuclear threat statements.

Nuclear tensions are also high in other conflicts, including in North-East Asia and South Asia. This event will summarise current nuclear risks and discuss measures for reducing these risks, including building political support for their adoption and how they can contribute to nuclear disarmament.

Reference will be made to relevant working papers to the NPT Review Conference including Working Paper 9 ‘A nuclear risk reduction package’ submitted by the Stockholm Initiative and ‘No-First Use of Nuclear Weapons: An Exploration of Unilateral, Bilateral and Plurilateral Approaches and their Security, Risk-reduction and Disarmament Implications’ submitted by NoFirstUse Global.

NoFirstUse Global is a network of organizations, academics, policy makers and civil society advocates working cooperatively for the adoption of no-first-use policies by nuclear-armed States, the support for such policies from nuclear allied countries, and the implementation of such policies to help achieve broader nuclear risk-reduction, non-proliferation and disarmament measures.