Submission from International Physicians
for the Prevention of Nuclear War
International lawyers, physicians, scientists,
and other civil society experts have offered a roadmap toward
a nuclear-weapons-free world in the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention.
The model NWC—a comprehensive framework for global nuclear
disarmament in all its aspects—has been a working document
of the General Assembly since 1997. Support for a convention has
been voiced repeatedly by majorities of UN Member States. A First
committee resolution (A/C.1/62/L.36) adopted last year and supported
by 127 Member States called for the commencement of "multilateral
negotiations leading to an early conclusion of a nuclear weapons
convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment,
stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing
for their elimination".
We believe that UK leadership toward the achievement
of a nuclear-weapons-free world, through the kind of comprehensive
approach to disarmament spelled out in the Convention, is essential
if this goal is to be reached.
IPPNW welcomes the Committee's inquiry into
the British government's approach to non-proliferation and disarmament,
and fully endorses the analysis and recommendations submitted
to the Committee by our British affiliate, Medact. We urge the
Committee to give full consideration to these recommendations,
and we look forward to the outcome of your deliberations.
26 September 2008
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