STATEMENT TO THE U.N. CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT

"KEIKO ONO – 2014 PACIFIC YOUNG LEADER ON DISARMAMENT

"""Federation of American Scientists




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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keiko Ono is a graduate in Politics and Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London). Of Japanese-Papuan New Guinean descent, Keiko Ono is intimately familiar with the opportunities and challenges facing political, economic, social, and cultural relations within the Pacific Islands and beyond. Prior to joining the Pacific Islands Council, she was the Vice President of the Pacific Islands Society and served as the Co-President for Sports and Societies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Student Union.

ABOUT THE PACIFIC YOUNG LEADERS IN DISARMAMENT PROGRAM In partnership with the Federation of American Scientists and Pacific Islands Society, the Emerging Science and Technology Policy Centre launched the “Pacific Young Leaders on Disarmament Project” in the spring of 2013. The Pacific Young Leaders program offers a unique opportunity for young leaders to discuss issues on counter-proliferation and disarmament, highlighting opportunities and challenges of the Conference on Disarmament (CD). The Young Leaders also produce a hypothetical statement to the Conference on Disarmament that advances their country’s national security interests against the CD Schedule. At the conclusion of the project, the statements are formally delivered to the Conference on Disarmament on behalf of the participants. "ABOUT THE PACIFIC ISLANDS SOCIETY INC. (PACSOC) The Pacific Islands Society is an independent, non-partisan, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting stronger people-people relations between the Pacific Island Countries and beyond. www.pacificislandssociety.com 
"ABOUT THE EMERGING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY CENTRE The Emerging Science and Technology Policy Centre was established to promote international peace by strengthening the impact and credibility of scientists and technologists in national security policy debates involving emerging science and technologies. www.estpc.org "ABOUT THE PACIFIC ISLANDS SOCIETY AT SOAS The Pacific Islands Society at SOAS is a registered society of the SOAS Student Union that aims to increase student and faculty awareness of the importance of Pacific affairs within the SOAS community and the broader U.K. higher-level education system. "ABOUT THE CENTER FOR AUSTRALIAN, NEW ZEALAND AND PACIFIC STUDIES
The Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies is part of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. The Center was established in August 1995 with funding from the Governments of Australia and New Zealand and offers a wide program of courses, conferences and meetings taught by outstanding academics each semester. http://canzps.georgetown.edu "ABOUT THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS
The Federation of American Scientists, is an independent, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to providing rigorous, objective, evidence-based analysis and practical policy recommendations on national and international security issues connected to applied science and technology. www.fas.org

" KEIKO ONO - PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour to have an

opportunity to address the Committee. I’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the

President on his appointment and to wish him and the seated delegates all the best as we push

forward the work of the conference on disarmament.

"Mr. President,

"Papua New Guinea, which lies on one half of the largest island in the region, is also known to

be one of most diverse countries in the world. With over 850 different languages, finding a

unified voice amongst a group as varied as the representatives found within the CD assembly,

resonates with the myriad of benefits and difficulties Papua New Guinea faces in successfully

developing and pursuing a common agenda.

"Mr. President,

"As it stands, none of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are members of the CD and for this

reason have not been able to play an active role in the field of disarmament during the

negotiations of the agenda and the main treaties in this field, including treaties that deal with

non-proliferation and arms control. Despite not having any direct influence in its activities, the

CD’s agenda to secure a safer future is evident in PNG’s ratification of ten of the fifteen main

treaties within this field. Furthermore, PNG is joined by Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau,

Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu as having

also successfully ratified a number of these treaties. Thus, this is thus indicative of the region’s

understanding of the need for a collective commitment to the work of the CD.

"

"

Mr. President,

"While Pacific Island Countries remain geographically distant from the workings of the CD, this

group of remote and relatively small islands accounts for 30% of the world. As a diverse and distinct

region of 20,0000 - 30,000 islands scattered over an area larger than Europe, we have in the decades

since colonialism borne witness to the effects of war, particularly the nuclear disasters that have hit

Japan and the United States nuclear tests which have since marred our waters and destroyed the lives

of people in the Marshall Islands and Northern Polynesia. With six of the nine nuclear armed states

situated in the Asia-Pacific region, we are no strangers to the perilous dangers of nuclear warfare, but

we are indeed, too close for comfort. The growing military presence in the region alongside brewing

tension in the East China Sea between emerging economies and declining empires, puts the Pacific

Islands at the centre of a strategically antiquated tug of war, one which displaces the region’s ability

to adequately focus and address the immediate dangers its people face, such as poverty and climate

change. With 70% of the world’s natural disasters affecting the Asia-Pacific region, countries such as

Kiribati and the Marshall Islands are literally faced with becoming extinct by fault of the

carelessness and complacency to combat climate change by all states sooner. Likewise, it is not our

desire to be a victim of a deliberate, accidental or sabotaged use of nuclear weapons or other WMDs

in our region.

"Indeed, nuclear military accidents remain a real possible threat. Between 1950 and 1990, there were

some 56 nuclear military accidents which mostly involved the transportation of nuclear weapons.

Given heightened military activity in the West Pacific and China Seas which involves transportation

of military armaments, how can we deny the possible repetition of similar incidents? Despite

tremendous developments in scientific military safety, we can never be certain.

"

Mr. President,

"Our commitment to disarmament is such that its prolonged paralysis under the CD is a direct

source of regional instability. The stale mate that exists, despite the growing need for new treaties

and agreements on nuclear disarmament; the prohibition of the production of fissile material for

military purposes; and the prevention of an arms race in outer space amongst others, is effectively

creating a hemorrhage of resources and time at the expense of our people and our planet. It calls

both for a serious realignment of our perspectives of power and restraint on our competitive and

misguided pursuit for it. Much of the justifications behind the reluctance to disarm and the

continued proliferation lies in political misperceptions and a lack of confidence between states and

other interest groups. In his 2009 keynote address as High Representative for Disarmament

Affairs, Ambassador Sergio Duarte emphasised that ‘without real transparency, there can be no

real accountability’ and as such, no lasting commitment to this agenda. The CD thus faces a

deadlock that threatens the legitimacy and effectiveness of the multilateral disarmament

machinery. It is for this reason that I would like put forward three suggestions focused on Agenda

Item 7, Transparency in Armaments and the working procedures of the CD so as to improve

measures on military constraint as well as the exchange, observation and verification of

armaments between and within countries.

"The recent progress with Iran’s agreement to halt further enrichment of its uranium is

commendable, but greater transparency is urgent, now more than ever, if we are to even begin

looking at the weapons that already exist. According to the 2012 SIPRI Yearbook, there are 19,000

nuclear arsenal held by NWS, 95% of which remain concentrated between the United States and

Russia. However justified its possession was in a bipolar era, there is clear consensus that since

the Cold War, there has been a significant diffusion of power. Alongside the greater access to

WMD as technology exceeds our ability to regulate its developments, this can only be met with a

"

strict monitoring and limitation of arms transfers as well as its production. The renewed agreement

between Russia and the United States in the New START treaty which entered into force in 2011

is a reassuring promise of change to come. However, a greater indication of this could be found in

the improvement of the records in the UN Register and Transparency in Armaments initiative as

introduced in the UNGA Resolution 46/36 L. Though the voluntary nature of this register has

successfully established the benchmark of a global norm, it is its consistent participation that

would affirm its effectiveness. Since its introduction, the record of imports and exports of arms in

seven categories has been erratic and incomplete amongst key countries and this, is the Achilles

heel to the workings of the CD if its effectiveness as a mechanism to review progress is to be

realized. "Mr. President,

"There is a call for strong leadership to commit to these agreements. As it is, we have been

fortunate to see in the past year various breakthroughs in disarmament - the adoption of the Arms

Trade Treaty by the UN General Assembly in April; the successful inspection and process of

destroying chemical weapons in Syria by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical

Weapons (OPCW); the High Level Meeting at the General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament in

September and finally the adoption of resolution 2117 by the Security Council, that for the first

time addressed the issue of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

"In recent years Mr. President, it is more the changes to the strategic environment than the rhetoric

for change that has prompted an increased political will in the CD to act. The gradual shift away

from the perception of nuclear weapons as being central to attaining status and prestige in the

international arena has primarily been attributed to a growing geopolitics based on mutually

beneficial economic power as opposed to the divisive focus on the balance of military power.

"

The increase in bilateral and particularly regional activities are indicative of this necessary shift.

Examples of this can be seen in the talks which have finally begun in the Middle East to establish

NWFZ as decided at the 2010 NPT review; the Mongolian initiative to likewise create a NWFZ in

Northeast Asia; and the capacity building measures being supported in the Caribbean Community

by the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament and Development in Latin America (UN-

LiREC). In order to strengthen transparency, similar regional efforts to develop further

mechanisms such as an international auditing body to monitor trading activity could also be a

valuable organ in achieving disarmament. As seen in the workings of the UN Monitoring,

Verification and Inspection Committee in Iraq or the effectiveness of the OPCW and the IAEA in

Syria and Iran respectively, we must capitalize on our collective imagination to create some

process of verification and inspection to improve transparency.

"Mr. President,




There is also a clear role for NWS in upholding the legitimacy of non-proliferation by actively

disarming. The two processes are mutually dependant. As suggested again by Secretary General

Ban Ki-Moon in his 2008 five-point proposal for disarmament, we must reinforce access to

records ‘about the size of [NWS] arsenals, stocks of fissile material, and specific disarmament

achievements’. We would also emphasize as highlighted by the NAM in its address to the First

Committee, the need to ban the NWS ‘…plans to modernize, upgrade, refurbish or extend the

lives of nuclear weapons and related facilities’. We strongly recommend the introduction of a

broader register and greater access to these records so the expression of political will is met with

substantial action guided by public scrutiny. Only then can the CD legitimately boast of an

effective mechanism for the review and improvement of its work.

"

A greater realization of this logic is in the need to enhance transparency if we are indeed to

actively hold states accountable to respecting international treaties. As such, Mr. President, finally

I would like to propose a need for a broader, more inclusive membership in the discussion,

development and delivery of policies related to disarmament so as to create a truly universal norm.

Much of the working procedures of the CD that has constrained the progress and participation had

been removed in other forums in the past year to include members of civil society, non-member

states and survivors of nuclear disasters. The resounding success of meetings as seen in the

International Conference on the Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons in Oslo as well as

the inaugural meetings of the Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) in Geneva, exemplified the

potential strength institutional frameworks hold to mobilize momentum and create solutions when

it included a broader cross section of populations and generations around the world, indeed to

deny people the right to participate in the discussions affecting their future is detrimental to the

process of disarmament.

"Mr. President,

"Papua New Guinea hopes to see the CD lead on the delegitimization of the production, exchange,

accumulation and offensive or accidental use of weapons as being immoral and unethical,

particularly to developing states in unstable regions. This is a universal vision shared by anyone

wishing to safeguard a better future for the generations to come. A call for greater transparency,

participation, collective innovation and leadership as outlined above are important if we are to

sincerely honour the voices of hibakusha’s and the victims of the bombings in the Marshall Islands

like Darlene Keju. We must come to realize that the continued pursuit of nuclear armaments,

would be to ratify our own doom. South Africa’s uniquely voluntary abandonment of its nuclear

weapons program and its consequent reduction in defense expenditure under the Presidency of the

late Nelson Mandela, is one such benchmark in leadership we are called upon to meet. Difficult as

it may seem, it is one that has been proven possible and thus made inevitable if we embrace this

opportunity to overcome the divisive and destructive paradigms of the past.

PACIFIC ISLANDS SOCIETY

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