Nuclear Weapons
= War Crimes

A project of INLAP/World Court Project UK  http://inlapwcp.webplus.net
Contact:geowcpuk@gn.apc.org
Affirm your belief that any use of nuclear weapons would be a war crime
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A Way Forward

The Swiss Government commissioned a study timed for the NPT Review Con-ference, “Delegitimising Nuclear Weapons”. The basic points are:
The security of all people everywhere, and not the alleged security of states, should be at the centre of the drive towards a world free of nuclear weapons.
The best way to achieve this is through International Humanitarian Law linked to our common humanity and sense of basic morality – the Public Conscience.  
If people are to be at the centre of our security concerns, the goal is simple.  The use of nuclear weapons must become unthinkable.  This is what we mean by delegitimising their use.  
How is this to be achieved?  We can learn from success in other areas of disarmament.  These include agreements on anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions.  There has been considerable progress in these because:
They did not go through “normal channels” like the NPT.  These only lead to weak outcomes.
They were led by citizen groups working together and providing expert analysis and coalitions and, in the first instance, a small number of interested states and serious individual politicians, members of the military and diplomats.  Consequently, “spoiler” states were naturally excluded.  As a result, the early work was done by groups and states which really meant business.  As time went on, the number of supporting states increased as the process gained momentum.
With no back-room and corridor deals aimed at reaching consensus, the basic aim – abolition – was strictly maintained.  There was no watering down.
The first step was banning the use of cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines.  Possessing or selling them, and then setting up ways of monitoring and enforcing the agreement came later.  In the same way, a process to ban nuclear weapons should always centre on the final goal - a Nuclear Weapons Convention – or something very much like it, beginning with banning their use.

Ordinary citizens were kept informed and their help was enlisted throughout the whole process.
The way forward is to use what we have – several groups of concerned citizens, millions of individuals, and a core group of supportive states - to thrash out an agreement among themselves that nuclear weapons must never be used in their name and that they would view any use as criminal. You can support this drive by signing your Personal Affirmation of the Criminality of Nuclear Weapons.  

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If people are to be at the centre of our security concerns, the goal is simple.  The use of nuclear weapons must become unthinkable.  _______________________