Copenhagen Arctic NWFZ Report

CONFERENCE ON AN ARCTIC NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE ZONE COPENHAGEN, 10-11 AUGUST, 2009 Arranged by the Danish Institute for International Studies, Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, the Danish and Canadian National Groups of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the Swedish Branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, with financial support from the Hermod Lannung Foundation. PROGRAM August 10, Danish Institute for International Studies Strandgade 71, 1401 Copenhagen K Lunch: 12.00-12.30 Closed Round Table Discussions (12.30-15.00) Chair: Alexa McDonough 12.30-12.40: Introductions 12.40-13.10: Hon Matt Robson Former New Zealand Disarmament Minister 13.10-13.30: Erik Gant, Acting Executive Secretary Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples Secretariat 13.30-13.50: Dr. Jan Prawitz, Swedish National Group Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 13.50-14.00: Discussion 14.00-14.15: Break 14.15-14.35: Torbjørn Graff Hugo Norske Leger Mot Atomv˚aben and Middle Powers Initiative 14.35-14.50: Prof. Gunnar Westberg, Director at Large International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War 14.50-15.00: Discussion Public Meeting (15.30-17.30) Chair: Cindy Vestergaard 15.30-15.40: Cindy Vestergaard Danish Institute for International Studies Introduction of the speakers and organizations 15.40-16.00: Prof. Michael Hamel-Green Executive Dean Victoria University, Australia 16.00-16.20: Dr. Adele Buckley Canadian National Group Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 16.20-16.35: Break 16.35-16.55: Steven Staples, President The Rideau Institute on International Affairs, Canada 16.55-17.30: Discussion from the floor August 11, H.C. Ørsted Institute University of Copenhagen Universitetspaprken 5, 2100 Copenhagen Ø , Aud. C303 Chair: Hon Matt Robson 10.00-10.20: MP Holger K. Nielsen Danish Parliament 10.20-10.40: Alexa McDonough Co-President Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament 10.40-11.00: Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament 11.00-11.30: Discussion 11.30-13.30: Lunch and informal discussion Chair: Alyn Ware 13.30-13.50: Jean-Marie Collin PNND Staff Member, France 13.50-14.10: Jens Zinglersen, President Foreningen af Str˚alingsramte Thulearbejdere 14.10-14.30: Hugo Elmer, Vice President Foreningen af Str˚alingsramte Thulearbejdere 14.30-14.50: Discussion 14.50-15.00: Break 15.00-17.00: Drafting of recommendations to be sent to governments in the Arctic region TOWARDS AN ARCTIC NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE ZONE - TOWARDS A NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE WORLD Speech by Hon Matt Robson, New Zealand Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, 1999-2002 Committee Member of IALANA (NZ), Honorary Member of PNND We live in an unbalanced world in terms of what humanity needs and what humanity gets. That means we live in a world of contradictions. Billions of our fellow citizens live without adequate, shelter, food or clothing. Over 2.5 billion human beings, 40% of the worlds population, have to try and live on less than US$ 2 per day. They lack adequate health care, if they get it all, and have little quality education. The great majority in this situation live in the so-called developing world. But a sizeable number who go without also live in the richest countries. The worlds richest individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. Yet those whom Bob Dylan called the Masters of War have determined that rather than meeting these basic needs of humanity, that military spending will take priority and that that spending needs indeed to increase. The internationally respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported in June 2008 as follows: World military spending grew 45 percent in the past decade with the United States accounting for nearly half of all expenditure. Military spending grew 6 percent in 2007. And that growth continues. In 2007 $1.338 trillion was spent on arms and other military expenditure, corresponding to 2.5 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP or US$202 for each of the worlds 6.6 billion people. The United States spends by far the most to- ward military aims, officially dishing out $547 billion last year, or 45 percent of global expenditure. Britain, China, France and Japan, the next group of big military spenders, lag far behind at just 4 to 5 percent of world military costs each. In 2008 eight nuclear weapon states possessed almost 10,200 operational nuclear weapons. Several thousand of these nuclear weapons are kept on high alert. When all nuclear warheads are counted operational warheads, spares, those in both active and inactive storage, and intact warheads to be dismantled, the nuclear armed states have 25,000 warheads. So we know where the weapons of mass destruction that George Bush went looking for in Iraq are located. Those WMDs were right under the noses 1 of George and Tony. They were not with rogue states and terrorist groups but in the military installations of the largest and most powerful states. And a number of them, alarmingly, are stored or deployed in the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic region. SIPRI concludes that the 5 nuclear states defined by the NPT in 1968- China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA- were all in the process of deploying new nuclear weapons or had announced their intention to do so . The de facto nuclear weapon states of Israel, India and Pakistan, and probably North Korea, are proceeding apace to develop missile systems that can deliver nuclear weapons. In the decade to 2008 military spending in Eastern Europe went up 62 percent. North America 65 percent, the Middle East by 62 percent, South Asia by 57 percent and Africa and East Asia by 51 percent each. This escalation has of course been a bonanza for the merchants of death. Sixty Three of the hundred top weapons firms are in the USA and Western Europe. In 2006 their sales were $292.3 billion. In the economic recession they are not reported as having any great financial problems. Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in their wonderful research in the Three Trillion Dollar War,published in 2008, estimated that the USA had spent three trillion dollars on George Bush and Tony Blairs war against Iraq. They asked how this enormous sum could have been used beneficially in the USA and the wider world. In the USA they state: A trillion dollars could have built 8 million additional housing units, could have hired some 15 million additional public school teachers for one year; could have paid for 120 million children to attend a year of head start; or insured 530 million children for health care for one year; or provided 43 million students with four year scholarships at public universities. Now multiply those numbers by three. They then go on to calculate the effect if the money, or even a fraction of it, for the war had been devoted to development goals for the poorest countries: For sums less than the direct expenditures on the war, we could have fulfilled our commitment to provide 0.7 percent of our gross domestic product to help developing countries money that could have made an enormous difference to the well-being of billions today living in poverty... Two trillion dollars would enable us to meet our commitments to the poorest countries for the next third of a century. How to redress this imbalance of expenditure? If a referendum was held of the worlds peoples on whether military expenditure should be greatly de- creased and whether nuclear weapons should be abolished and the funds redirected to the goals set out by Stiglitz and Bilmes,my money would be on the bet that a thumping majority would vote yes. Our task at this conference 2 is to be part of a movement to mobilise humanity so that that referendum becomes a reality and a movement of solidarity across the globe grows and its voice becomes one that cannot be ignored. Nuclear Weapon Free Zones are a vital tool in developing that voice so that that voice becomes a powerful political force. Creating an Arctic Nuclear Free Zone will be an important part of building that political force, will redress the imbalance with the Antarctic and will provide an important impetus to the goal of the total abolition of all nuclear weapons. The Southern Hemisphere When all the countries of Africa below the equator are committed to the treaty of Pelindaba, and that is almost complete, then every country in the Southern Hemisphere will be free of nuclear weapons. This means the Pacific countries, those in Asia, Latin America and now Africa have committed themselves to rid not only their own territories of nuclear weapons but also to being part of the overwhelm- ing number of countries committed to total abolition. We in New Zealand, at government level, and among the people, have long supported the call not just for a Southern Hemisphere Nuclear Weapon Free Zone but one that incorporates adjacent areas as well. We are well aware that the indigenous peoples of the Pacific, north and south, have led the way in our region to be nuclear free. It took a long time for New Zealand and other nations to respond to their call to end nuclear testing and storage in the Pacific. For too long we ignored those just demands and sided with the colonial powers who used them and their territories to develop weapons of mass destruction and to despoil the environment.Their territories and waters were the testing ground for the nuclear powers and they suffered terribly and continue to suffer.

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