Press Release: World Future Council supports right of peaceful protest in Kenya

Media Statement: World Future Council condemns acts of aggression and calls for restoration of peace and international law

    Media Statement: World Future Council condemns acts of aggression and calls for restoration of peace and international law

    24th of February 2022 – The World Future Council condemns the Russian military action against Ukraine as an act of aggression that is clearly in violation of international law. Regardless of any grievances and unresolved conflicts that Russia may have with Ukraine and the United States/NATO,  the threat or use of force to resolve such conflicts is prohibited under Article 2 of the UN Charter. President Putin, in ordering military attacks against Ukraine, has committed a Crime Against Peace for which he is personally accountable as Head of State.

    President Putin’s acts are catapulting Russia and Ukraine into an armed conflict that, if not stopped, will lead to catastrophic suffering of both combatants and civilians in Ukraine, place Russia at risk of counter attack which will cause suffering to Russian people many of whom oppose President Putin’s illegal actions, and could escalate to a broader regional war threatening peace and security in the world and elevating the risk of nuclear war.

    War has no place in the 21st century when humanity already needs to address so many pressing issues such as climate change and implementing the SGDS.

    We regret that better use was not made of diplomacy, mediation and common security mechanisms earlier in the conflict to address and resolve historical grievances. We call now on the international community to use all non-military means possible, including those outlined in Articles 33 – 41 of the UN Charter, to contain and reverse the invasion of Ukraine, and to hold President Putin criminally responsible for the act of aggression, along with other Russian officials who are complicit.

    We stand in support of the people of Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the world who do not want war, who do not support the incendiary rhetoric and disinformation campaigns that have polarised relations between and within nations, who support dialogue and conflict resolution, who want to establish a sustainable peace for current and future generations, and who aspire for a world where governments no longer prepare for war with massive military spending but focus these resources instead on meeting human security needs like climate protection, public health and ending poverty

    MEDIA CONTACT
    Alyn Ware
    Councillor, World Future Council
    Founder and global coordinator of the network Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
    alyn@pnnd.org
    Ph: +420 773 638 867

    About the World Future Council
    The World Future Council (WFC) works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to our children and grandchildren. To achieve this, we focus on identifying, developing, highlighting, and spreading effective, future-just solutions for current challenges humanity is facing, and promote their implementation worldwide. The Council consists of 50 eminent global change-makers from governments, parliaments, civil societies, academia, the arts, and the business world. Jakob von Uexkull, the Founder of the Alternative Nobel Prize, launched the World Future Council in 2007. We are an independent, non-profit organisation under German law and finance our activities with institutional partnerships and donations.

    Media Statement: World Future Council condemns acts of aggression and calls for restoration of peace and international law

    Media Statement: World Future Council condemns acts of aggression and calls for restoration of peace and international law

    24th of February 2022 – The World Future Council condemns the Russian military action against Ukraine as an act of aggression that is clearly in violation of international law. Regardless of any grievances and unresolved conflicts that Russia may have with Ukraine and the United States/NATO,  the threat or use of force to resolve such conflicts is prohibited under Article 2 of the UN Charter. President Putin, in ordering military attacks against Ukraine, has committed a Crime Against Peace for which he is personally accountable as Head of State.

    President Putin’s acts are catapulting Russia and Ukraine into an armed conflict that, if not stopped, will lead to catastrophic suffering of both combatants and civilians in Ukraine, place Russia at risk of counter attack which will cause suffering to Russian people many of whom oppose President Putin’s illegal actions, and could escalate to a broader regional war threatening peace and security in the world and elevating the risk of nuclear war.

    War has no place in the 21st century when humanity already needs to address so many pressing issues such as climate change and implementing the SDGs.

    We regret that better use was not made of diplomacy, mediation and common security mechanisms earlier in the conflict to address and resolve historical grievances. We call now on the international community to use all non-military means possible, including those outlined in Articles 33 – 41 of the UN Charter, to contain and reverse the invasion of Ukraine, and to hold President Putin criminally responsible for the act of aggression, along with other Russian officials who are complicit.

    We stand in support of the people of Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the world who do not want war, who do not support the incendiary rhetoric and disinformation campaigns that have polarised relations between and within nations, who support dialogue and conflict resolution, who want to establish a sustainable peace for current and future generations, and who aspire for a world where governments no longer prepare for war with massive military spending but focus these resources instead on meeting human security needs like climate protection, public health and ending poverty

    MEDIA CONTACT
    Alyn Ware
    Councillor, World Future Council
    Co-Chair, World Future Council, Peace and Disarmament Commission
    alyn@pnnd.org
    Ph: +420 773 638 867

    About the World Future Council
    The World Future Council (WFC) works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to our children and grandchildren. To achieve this, we focus on identifying, developing, highlighting, and spreading effective, future-just solutions for current challenges humanity is facing, and promote their implementation worldwide. The Council consists of 50 eminent global change-makers from governments, parliaments, civil societies, academia, the arts, and the business world. Jakob von Uexkull, the Founder of the Alternative Nobel Prize, launched the World Future Council in 2007. We are an independent, non-profit organisation under German law and finance our activities with institutional partnerships and donations.

    Count the Nuclear Weapons Money: 7 days and nights for disarmament

    The intention of Count the Nuclear Weapons Money is to show the true scale of the investments that nine countries are planning for the modernisation of their nuclear arsenals over the next 10 years. Volunteers in New York, London (UK), New Mexico, Philadelphia and Wellington (New Zealand) gathered to manually count $1 Trillion over 7 days and 7 nights.

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    Press Release: Disarmament and divestment conference in Basel

    Hamburg/New York, 5th April 2019 – Global contest announced by the World Future Council, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), with the support of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Youth Policy Labs.

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    The best way to honour Judge Weeramantry is by learning from and using his legacy

    With the passing of Judge C.G. Weeramantry on 5 January the peace, disarmament and sustainability movements have lost a monumental figure. Judge Weeramantry dedicated his life to strengthening and expanding the rule of international law and demonstrated how the rule of law can be used to address critical global challenges such as the continued threat of nuclear weapons, the protection of human rights and the protection of the environment.

    In addition to being one of the brightest legal minds on these issues, he was a tireless activist. Nuclear weapons were always a particular concern of his. As we face a future still marked by the nuclear threat, his wisdom and activism will be sorely missed. Fortunately, in the five decades spanning his career he has produced some of the most pioneering, convincing and eloquent analysis and arguments on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons.

    We would do well to revisit some of Judge Weeramantry’s treatises and learn from them as we continue to make the case for a world free of nuclear weapons. These include:

     

    • Dissenting Opinion, International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons

      As relevant today as when he wrote it, Judge Weeramantry’s strong dissent from the majority’s decision to leave undetermined the legality of the use of nuclear weapons in self-defence when the survival of the state would be at stake, is one of the most authoritative and comprehensive arguments on the illegality of nuclear weapons “in all circumstances and without reservation.”

      See here for a summary.

    • Why the Nuclear Danger Grows from Day to Day

      The World Future Council co-published this informative booklet with the Weeramantry International Centre for Peace Education and Research on the occasions of the 2005 and 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conferences. In concise yet convincing arguments, Judge Weeramantry highlights the uniqueness of the nuclear threat and how our complacency risks the human future: “Never in the history of humanity has such urgency existed in relation to any issue and never were the consequences so devastating to the human future and to all that we hold dear. The danger grows not from year to year or from month to month but from day to day.”

    As long as nuclear weapons exist, Judge Weeramantry’s unique insights and arguments remain powerful and pertinent. Using the legacy he has left us to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons would be the greatest tribute we can pay him.

    3D-Street Art highlights Global Call for Disarmament

    From October 1-3, a three-dimensional street painting of a nuclear missile being fired from the ground was unveiled next to the German Parliament. The art project occurred in conjunction with the opening of an international conference Disarm! For a Climate of Peace – Creating an Action Agenda.

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    Achieving a world without nuclear weapons: the contribution of domestic and regional policies

    The establishment of Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZ) in the past has made invaluable contributions to global nuclear disarmament. The further spread of such zones as well as adoption of domestic nuclear prohibition and divestment policies can pave the way for multilateral solutions. The World Future Council has developed proposals on how to further foster nuclear disarmament through national and regional policies.

    Nuclear weapons are a global threat which requires a global solution. However, domestic and regional policies can make a vital contribution to advancing universal nuclear disarmament. While the treaties establishing the existing regional Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones are well known and generally regarded as critical contributions to global nuclear disarmament (together covering 114 states), the instances of national nuclear prohibition legislation and nuclear divestment policies have not received the same amount of attention or, indeed, credit. This is unfortunate as these policies have advanced nuclear disarmament, can inspire other countries to follow suit and contain lessons for the global disarmament endeavour.

    Between 2 May and 13 May 2016 the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) met for a second round in Geneva to discuss proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons. The OEWG was established on the basis of a UN General Assembly resolution. Among the participants were numerous countries (though notably absent were all the nuclear-armed states), advocacy groups, research institutes, academic institutes and think tanks, including the World Future Council.

    From domestic to international law – Stories of successful legislation

    Some countries, such as New Zealand, the Philippines, Austria and Mongolia have banned nuclear weapons through national legislation. These policies have contributed to strengthening the nuclear prohibition norm and addressed specific security challenges.

    Some of the laws contain innovative elements such as individual responsibility and extraterritorial application in the case of the New Zealand law, which prohibits New Zealand’s citizens and residents to manufacture, to acquire, to possess or to control nuclear weapons as well as to aid and to abet any other person to do so anywhere in the world. These aspects of the policy could be useful to multilateral efforts to criminalise nuclear weapons employment such as through the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court.

    In the case of Mongolia, the country’s subsequent work to have its nuclear weapon-free status recognised and respected through acquiring assurances by the nuclear-armed states they won’t target Mongolia with nuclear weapons, means its policy is seen to have acquired the status of ‘Single State NWFZ’.

    All policies contain elements and lessons that could be considered in the pursuit of similar policies elsewhere. The triggering effect of single countries building a regime of domestic regional nuclear disarmament law should not be underestimated.

    For example, Belgium adopted national legislation banning landmines and cluster munitions as well as any investment in such weapons, before the international processes that would ultimately culminate in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions had started. This demonstrates how domestic legislative initiatives can inspire, strengthen and shape the international processes that culminate in international disarmament treaties.

    Banning investment in nuclear weapons

    Divestment of landmines and cluster munitions producers has successfully been adopted in a number of countries. Divestment from corporations involved in the production of key components of nuclear weapons has not been pursued with the same vigour, though the Norwegian and New Zealand Government Pension Funds have implemented such schemes. More recently, the Swiss War Materials Act was revised to prohibit, inter alia, the financing of nuclear weapon producers. The effect of such divestment policies should not be underestimated. They contribute to stigmatising nuclear weapons and address the financial streams tied up in their production.

    An interesting aspect of both nuclear prohibition and divestment policies is that they can lead to the democratisation of the nuclear disarmament debate, as they often originate from public movements and require legislators to become active on the issue. Furthermore, such policies can institutionalize nuclear disarmament expertise and commitment through the creation of organs committed to promoting policy objectives as well as become educational tools, both domestically and abroad. Perhaps most importantly, they offer a way for non-nuclear weapon states to take the initiative out of the hands of the nuclear-armed states, brandish their nuclear disarmament credentials, codify nuclear disarmament norms and in the process exert pressure on the possessor states.

    Lifelong Canadian disarmament campaigner Douglas Roche has said that “the anti-nuclear weapons campaign is following the classic lines of other great social movements, such as the end of slavery, colonialism and apartheid: at first, the idea is dismissed by the powerful, then when the idea starts to take hold, it is vigorously objected to until, by persistence, the idea enters the norm of public thinking and laws start to be changed.” Countries should ensure they end up on the right side of history by adopting laws that strengthen and speed up the global effort to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

    Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

    Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones or NWFZs are zones that have been established on the basis of a treaty or convention which are characterized by the total absence of nuclear weapons. Every state has the right and sovereignty to establish such a zone and to determine its frontier. An international system of verification and control guarantees compliance with the rules established. These zones must be recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations.