COUNTERPLAN/NUCLEAR ABOLITION

SPECIFIC NUCLEAR ABOLITION PROPOSALS

CANBERRA COMMISSION GUIDELINES ON POLICIES FOR NUCLEAR ELIMINATION

The commitment by the nuclear weapon states to a nuclear weapon free world must be accompanied by a series of practical, realistic and mutually reinforcing steps. There are a number of such steps that can be taken immediately. They would significantly reduce the risk of nuclear war and thus enhance the security of all states, but particularly that of the nuclear weapon states. Their implementation would provide clear confirmation of the intent of the nuclear weapon states to further reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their security postures. The recommended steps are:

* Taking nuclear forces off alert

* Removal of warheads from delivery vehicles

* Ending deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons

* Ending nuclear testing

* Initiating negotiations to further reduce United States and Russian nuclear arsenals

* Agreement amongst the nuclear weapon states of reciprocal no first use undertakings, and of a non-use undertaking by them in relation to the non-nuclear weapon states.

TEN POINT PROGRAM FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION

There are a number of steps which could be taken by the UK Government, either alone or in association with other governments, to create a climate of confidence in continuing disarmament measures:

1. Agreement and implementation of a fully Comprehensive Test Ban treaty, which would go some way towards curbing the development of increasingly sophisticated and dangerous nuclear warfighting systems.

2. An agreement halting the production of nuclear materials in warheads, including the reprocessing of plutonium and enrichment of uranium, to stop large amounts of weapons-grade nuclear materials from floating onto the world market and potentially into the hands of terrorists or ambitious 'rogue states'.

3. Agreement should be reached for each nuclear site to be declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency and open to intrusive inspection by the IAEA, including unannounced inspections and use of intelligence and satellite equipment, in order for there to be full and impartial enforcement of all international agreements concerning nuclear weapons.

4. Countries which currently possess nuclear weapons should declare that they have no intention of using them first in any conflict, and that non-nuclear countries are not targeted with nuclear weapons. Neither declaration undermines the security of nuclear weapons states, but would be important in improving international relations.

5. Negotiations for a new START treaty, building on the successes of the START I and II agreements, should commence, this time including the arsenals of Britain, France and China, and possibly also including the governments of so-called 'threshold' nuclear states.

6. An international fund should be set up to help with the costs of implementing disarmament agreements involving nuclear weapons, thus ensuring the safety of dismantled nuclear stockpiles and that the agreements are not undermined by economic considerations as has happened to some extent in the former Soviet Union.

7. The development and deployment of new nuclear weapons systems should be frozen, to stem the continuing development of highly sophisticated new warfighting weapons which could prompt other countries to develop nuclear stockpiles, and provide the opportunity for serious negotiations on existing stockpiles to proceed in earnest.

8. Existing nuclear arsenals of individual countries should be restricted to the soil and territorial waters of those countries which possess them, and even partially or wholly dismantled, as a demonstration of that government's commitment to disarmament talks and also as a means of lessening the actual threat of a conflict involving nuclear weapons.

9. Strong encouragement should be given to the establishment of regional nuclear weapon-free-zones, respected by all states, in order to defuse the likelihood of regional conflicts - the most predominant type of conflict which can often escalate into wider conflicts - from involving nuclear weapons, thereby increasing security in that region and, in consequence, throughout the global community.

10. Agreements on other weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological weapons, should be agreed or strengthened in order to prevent these weapons being used either in place of nuclear weapons or being deployed as a 'poor man's bomb', and there should also be agreements on high-technology and other so-called 'conventional' weapons systems which are seen as undermining security and therefore 'justify' the continuing possession of nuclear weapons.

THE TEN POINT PROGRAM WILL LEAD TO NUCLEAR ABOLITION AND INCREASED GLOBAL SAFETY

The above steps can to some extent help to create the necessary climate for further deep cuts in nuclear weapons, the lessening of the likelihood that they will ever actually be used, and lay the ground for a realistic agreement banning these weapons in the same way that both chemical and biological weapons have been banned by international convention.

CONGFRESSWOMAN LYNN WOOLSEY’S NUCLEAR ABOLITION RESOLUTION

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Woolsey

Nuclear Abolition Resolution

1999

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As of August 1999

H. RES. 82

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 24, 1999

RESOLUTION

Whereas on February 2, 1998, former President Jimmy Carter and more than 100 former or current heads of state and civilian leaders from 46 nations issued a statement that 'the world is not condemned to live forever with threats of nuclear conflict, or the anxious fragile peace imposed by nuclear deterrence' and that 'the sheer destructiveness of nuclear weapons invokes a moral imperative for their elimination';

Whereas the development and maintenance of nuclear arsenals are extraordinarily expensive;

Whereas the end of the Cold War and the current strategic environment provide an unprecedented opportunity to revise our national policies on nuclear weapons;

Whereas the United States has a vital security interest in promoting the nonproliferation and disarmament of nuclear weapons;

Whereas the only security from the threat of nuclear weapons is their elimination under strict and effective international control;

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives-

(1) welcomes the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention as a discussion document intended to further negotiations on complete nuclear disarmament;

(2) urges the President to initiate multilateral negotiations leading to the early conclusion of a nuclear weapons convention; and

(3) requests the President to inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the efforts and measures the United States has taken on the implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 52/38 O and nuclear disarmament.

12 STEP PROGRAM BY NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATES TO CREATE A REALITY OF NUCLEAR ABOLITION

The following steps should be taken by the nuclear weapons states to assure a full commitment to ending the nuclear weapons threat that now hangs over the heads of all humanity and clouds our future:

1. Commence good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.

2. Publicly acknowledge the weaknesses and fallibilities of deterrence: that deterrence is only a theory and is clearly ineffective against nations whose leaders may be irrational or suicidal; nor can deterrence assure against accidents, misperceptions, miscalculations, or terrorists.

3. Publicly acknowledge the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons under international law as stated by the International Court of Justice in its 1996 opinion, and further acknowledge the obligation under international law for good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.

4. Publicly acknowledge the immorality of threatening to annihilate millions, even hundreds of millions, of people in the name of national security.

5. De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.

6. Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.

7. Establish an international accounting system for all nuclear weapons and weapons-grade nuclear materials.

8. Sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, cease laboratory and subcritical nuclear tests designed to modernize and improve nuclear weapons systems, cease construction of Megajoule in France and the National Ignition Facility in the US and end research programs that could lead to the development of pure fusion weapons, and close the remaining nuclear test sites in Nevada and Novaya Zemlya.

9. Re-affirm the commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and cease efforts to violate that Treaty by the deployment of national or theater missile defenses, and cease the militarization of space.

10. Support existing nuclear weapons free zones, and establish new ones in the Middle East, Central Europe, North Asia, Central Asia and South Asia.

11.Set forth a plan to complete the transition under international control and monitoring to zero nuclear weapons by 2020, with agreed upon levels of nuclear disarmament to be achieved by the NPT Review Conferences in 2005, 2010 and 2015.

12. Begin to reallocate the billions of dollars currently being spent annually for maintaining nuclear arsenals ($35 billion in the U.S. alone) to improving human health, education and welfare throughout the world.

NULEAR ABOLITION PROGRAM OUTLINED

* Negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention to Prohibit and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, including the steps below:

* Ratify and enter-into-force the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

* Remove the "hair trigger" danger of a deliberate or accidental nuclear strike by taking all nuclear weapons off alert.

* Pledge no first use (China is the only nuclear weapons state with a no first use policy).

* Cut off fissile material production and place materials under international safeguards.

* Restrict deployment of nuclear weapons to each country that owns them.

* Cancel current and planned nuclear weapons programs and close all nuclear test sites.

* Create Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones (NFWZ). Current NFWZs exist in SE Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America, the Antarctic, and Africa.

* Dismantle existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons through a phased series of equitable treaties.

* Establish an international fund for financing nuclear disarmament, environmental cleanup and economic conversion.

* Establish an international fund for sustainable energy research and phase out nuclear power plants which pose a proliferation risk.

2. Establish an international citizens' verification tribunal for citizens to report possible breaches of progress towards nuclear abolition.

36 NOBEL LAUREATES OUTLINE THE STEPS TO NUCLEAR FREE WORLD

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  11.28.2000 A World Without Nuclear Weapons

Here are some of the steps that are needed that have been endorsed by many world leaders, including Jimmy Carter, Queen Noor of Jordan, Elie Wiesel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  A total of 36 Nobel Laureates, including 14 Nobel Peace Laureates, have endorsed these steps.

*       Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and reaffirm commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

*       De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.

*       Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.

*       Commence good faith negotiations to achieve a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.

*       Reallocate resources from the tens of billions of dollars currently being spent for maintaining nuclear arsenals to improving human health, education and welfare throughout the world.

CRANSTON PROPOSAL FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION

Among these proposals, we, the undersigned, fully subscribe to the following measures:

1.  Remove nuclear weapons from alert status, separate them from their delivery vehicles, and place them in secure national storage.

2.  Halt production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

3.  End nuclear testing, pending entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

4.  Launch immediate U.S./Russian negotiations toward further, deep reductions of their nuclear arsenals, irrespective of START II ratification.

5.  Unequivocal commitment by the other declared and undeclared nuclear weapon states to join the reduction process on a proportional basis as the U.S. and Russia approach their arsenal levels, within an international system of inspection, verification, and safeguards.

6.  Develop a plan for eventual implementation, achievement and enforcement of the distant but final goal of elimination.