14 February 2017 XXV Regular Session of the General Ministerial Conference of OPANAL. Statement of Peter Maurer, President, International Committee of the Red Cross. Allow me to begin by thanking the Government of Mexico for inviting me to speak on this historic occasion. The adoption of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in…
By Joe Cirincione Published in “Defence One” February 9, 2017 President Donald Trump has already picked a fight with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over nuclear weapons and the New START treaty. It is a curious battle to choose. The treaty enjoys the overwhelming backing of America’s top national security leaders and military commanders. Trump reportedly didn’t know what…
by Daniel Rietiker Abstract: This chapter takes a new approach to the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The pros and cons of nuclear energy will be assessed in light of human rights standards, whereby civil as well as economic, social and cultural rights will be equally taken into account. Contrary to environmental…
By Dave Philipps, New York Times, 28 Jan. 2017 RICHLAND, Wash. — When Tim Snider arrived on Enewetak Atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to clean up the fallout from dozens of nuclear tests on the ring of coral islands, Army officers immediately ordered him to put on a respirator and a bright…
A giant of the law, Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, died peacefully at his home in Sri Lanka on January 5, 2017. He was everything a lawyer could be: barrister, professor, judge. From 1967 to 1972 he served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then as a judge of the…
Only in 1953, when the USA and the USSR tested their hydrogen bombs, the world was a more dangerous one according to scientists! For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock stayed set at three minutes before the hour, the closest it had been to midnight since the early 1980s. In…
Very readable article published in Arms Control Today, January/February 2017
Nuclear disarmament is not dead yet and interesting times are ahead of us. The UN General Assembly adopted, on 27 October 2016, a landmark resolution to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty banning nuclear weapons. This historic resolution might mark the end of two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts. At a…
By Daniel Rietiker The UN Human Rights Committee is currently drafting a new General Comment No. 36 on the right to life. Since the current draft does not entirely reflect the duties of the States Parties to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Politicial Rights (ICCPR) with regards WMD, including nuclear weapons, Swiss Lawyers…
By Daniel Rietiker I was invited to represent Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmamaent (SLND/SAFNA) and IALANA at this conference in Astana (Kazakhstan). I was struck by the hospitality of the Kazakh hosts and their efforts deployend in order to offer ideal conditions for fruitful negotiations. Nuclear disarmament and the achievement of a nuclear-weapon-free world is…
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