STATEMENT TO THE U.N. CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT
"KEIKO ONO – 2014 PACIFIC YOUNG LEADER ON DISARMAMENT
"""Federation of American Scientists
PLACE LOGO OR
COMPANY NAME HERE
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
P.O.BOX 632 EBENSBURG, PA 15931, U.S.A • PHONE 412-567-7147 •
[email protected] • www.pacificislandssociety.org