Submission on NZ ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Thomas Nash, Co-chair, New Zealand Alternative

28 June 2018

INTRO:
 I led the global civil society campaign to ban cluster bombs, co-founded London-based
organisation Article 36 and served on the board of ICAN, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
for its work on the TPNW. So I appreciate the opportunity to provide a submission on this treaty.

 I’m part of the group that has established New Zealand Alternative, a new foreign policy think-
tank launching later in the year and I’m an Adjunct Lecturer in Politics at Massey University.

 This is Taeko Yoshioka Braid, who is an eyewitness of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

 I will briefly lay out three recommendations and explain the importance of the treaty, before Taeko
gives the committee her eyewitness account of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.

 Given the strong political and public support for New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance, this
submission will focus on ratification of this treaty, rather than making broader arguments around
the immoral and irrational nature of nuclear weapons and nuclear violence.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. New Zealand should swiftly ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

2. New Zealand should take a leadership role within the TPNW, through support for participation,
advocacy and research by Pacific peoples and victims of nuclear weapons.

3. New Zealand should take a leadership role on multilateral disarmament, starting with ongoing
international discussions on autonomous weapons.

RATIONALE:
 There are two key points about the TPNW that set it apart from past efforts on nuclear weapons:

 1) It has a humanitarian purpose - following on from the “humanitarian disarmament” tradition of

the bans on landmines and cluster bombs. This is a departure from the Cold War mentality of
deterrence where nuclear weapons are first and foremost symbols of power and prestige – of
missile silos and submarines and Cambridge grads talking game theory in operations rooms.

 Violence and militarism rely on dehumanising weapons and war. This treaty acknowledges the
human impact of nuclear violence. The negotiating process involved doctors, relief workers, food
and climate scientists, etc.

 It’s fitting that this focus on the humanitarian impact be reflected in NZ’s ratification process with
an eyewitness account from someone who has actually experienced the impact of nuclear war.

 2) It proceeded despite opposition from the nuclear-armed states, when previous efforts had
required their participation. It takes a normative approach, setting standards to shape the legal
landscape, erode the perceived legitimacy of nuclear weapons and empower opposition to them.

 Its adoption is important because the TPNW represents the power of multilateral diplomacy at a
time when the rules-based international order, on which NZ relies, is under threat. It shows how
smaller states working with civil society, can get remarkable results – more important than ever.

 We should pay tribute to the indigenous peoples and survivors of nuclear violence, including in
our Pacific region, who have long advocated for a ban on nuclear weapons and who participated
actively in the TPNW negotiating process.

 Their advocacy is reflected in the text of the TPNW itself, in the preamble and in the treaty’s legal
obligation for states to assist the victims of nuclear weapons.
ON RATIFICATION:
 Ratifying the treaty should be straightforward. Existing legislation, including the 1987 NZ Nuclear
Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act, covers the legal provisions of this treaty, so
ratification requires no new legislation or changes to legislation.

 You’ll hear more detail on that in the ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand submission later this morning
and I want to strongly support that submission as well.

 So it should be possible to complete the process for ratification and deposit our instrument of
ratification with the depositary by 7 July, which is the one year anniversary of the treaty’s adoption
at the United Nations in New York.

 Early ratification of this treaty will signal New Zealand’s commitment to eliminating nuclear
weapons and to making genuine progress on international disarmament work.

ON TPNW LEADERSHIP:
 Ratification would build on the government’s decision to reinstate a Minister for Disarmament and
Arms Control at the Cabinet level and to increase the overall budget for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, which does our disarmament diplomacy.

 In practical terms, NZ’s early ratification will allow us to shape the future implementation of the
treaty by becoming one of its first state parties once it enters into force.

 Beyond our own ratification, NZ should proactively seek opportunities to promote adherence to
the treaty by other countries, particularly in our own Asia Pacific region.

 Partnership with and support for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons would
amplify NZ’s capacity to encourage and facilitate wide ratification of the treaty.

 The window of opportunity to promote accession to the treaty is now, especially with the award of
the Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN last year.

 Experience with other international disarmament agreements demonstrates that bilateral and
multilateral engagement by active states to promote ratification - especially at an early stage - has
a major impact on the speed with which an instrument enters into force.

ON WIDER DISARMAMENT LEADERSHIP:

 These efforts should be part of a wider renewal of our disarmament work, where energy and
resources are sorely needed at the international level.

 In particular, New Zealand should take a leadership role in promoting an international agreement
to prevent the development or use of lethal autonomous weapons.

 Current discussions at the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons have
been ongoing since 2014 and there is an opportunity in November 2018 to shift the deliberations
from a discussion phase to a negotiating phase.

 New Zealand should be at the forefront of promoting such a shift, including by supporting active
engagement from professional, academic and civil society groups.

CONCLUSION:
 New Zealand’s national and international identity are strongly linked to disarmament.

 Our early ratification of the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will reflect our
commitment to disarmament and put the country in a position to advocate even more effectively
on the wider disarmament agenda.