PNND and education for nuclear disarmament

On December 2, 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by consensus, Resolution 69/65 on the importance of education for disarmament and non-proliferation. The resolution affirmed the recommendations of the UN Study on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Education, and requested governments and non-governmental organisations to submit reports in 2016 on activities they had undertaken to implement these recommendations.

The UN Study highlights the importance of educating and engaging parliamentarians in nuclear disarmament issues and initiatives, and especially in key United Nations meetings.

PNND reported to the UN on May 21 on some of the activities we have taken from 2014-2016 to educate and engage parliamentarians, and to implement other recommendations of the UN Study. (Click here for the full PNND report).

Excerpts from the PNND report to the United Nations

Executive Summary:
PNND has a special focus on working with the United Nations and on engaging parliamentarians in UN initiatives and forums for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. This includes promoting UN initiatives in national parliaments, commemorating key UN days such as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, holding events in inter-parliamentary forums such as the Inter Parliamentary Union and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and supporting parliamentarians to be on government delegations to UN meetings. In 2014, PNND co-founded UNFOLD ZERO, a global platform for promoting UN initiatives and forums for nuclear disarmament.

UN Study Recommendation 8: Including parliamentarians on delegations to UN meetings

PNND encouraged governments to include parliamentarians on their delegations to key UN meetings including the UN General Assembly and Non-Proliferation Treaty conferences and the UN Open Ended Working Group (OEWG). A number of PNND members attended the 2015 NPT Review Conference, 2015 UN General Assembly and/or the 2016 OEWG either as members of their government delegations or as members of the PNND delegations to these meetings. PNND also organised side-events at the 2015 NPT Review Conference and UN General Assembly.

UN Study Recommendation 12: Religious leaders and institutions are encouraged to develop educational material

PNND experts co-wrote and edited a Resource Guide on Nuclear Disarmament for Religious Leaders and Communities, which was published by Religions for Peace and released at a special event at the United Nations by Laura Chinchilla, the President of Costa Rica and a PNND Council Member. The resource guide has a strong focus on United Nations forums and initiatives for nuclear disarmament. It has also been published in Arabic, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

PNND, Mayors for Peace and Religions for Peace prepared a global appeal of legislators and religious leaders entitled ‘A Nuclear Weapon Free World: Our Common Good.’ The appeal, which was adopted in Hiroshima on the 70^th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of that city, has been used as an effective tool to inform mayors, parliamentarians and religious leaders around the world about nuclear disarmament issues and to engage them in action. It is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Recommendation 22. Internships for educating graduate and under-graduate students

PNND provides internships for students in our Basel, Prague and New York offices with opportunities to engage in UN disarmament initiatives and UN meetings especially those being held at the UN in Geneva and New York. From 2014 -2016, PNND hosted 15 interns.