Parliamentarians and the NPT – Wave goodbye to nuclear weapons!

IPU President Saber Chowdhury, Birgitta Jónsdóttir MP and Hon Annette King MP 'wave goodbye to nuclear weapons.'

Inter Parliamentary Union calls on parliamentarians to act for a successful NPT Review Conference

Actions could include parliamentary debates/resolutions, attending the NPT Review Conference, or doing a Global Wave 2015 action in front of your parliament

IPU President leads a 'Wave goodbye to nuclear weapons' at the IPU 132nd Assembly as part of Global Wave 2015
April 6, 2015 Topics:  Inter Parliamentary Union, Non-proliferation Treaty

Governments will be meeting at the United Nations from April 27 – May 22 for the 2015 Review Conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT Review Conferences occur once every five years. A positive outcome is vital for strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime and for making progress on nuclear disarmament.

Parliamentarians can support a positive outcome to the NPT Review Conference in a number of ways:

  1. Initiate questions, debates or motions in your parliaments. Click here for a sample resolution. For examples of parliamentary debates see UK, Norway and Japan parliaments – on a ban, the pledge and the role of nukes;
     
  2. Participate in the NPT Review Conference either as an observer on your government delegation, or as a member of the PNND delegation. Contact PNND by April 9 if you want to be on the PNND delegation. There will be a number of side events during the NPT, some organised  by PNND. Click here for the full list;
     
  3. Participate in Global Wave 2015 – a global initiative to ‘Wave goodbye to nuclear weapons’. Organise a simple ‘Wave goodbye’ with other parliamentarians in front of your parliament. Inform Global Wave 2015 (or PNND) about the action so it can be posted on the World map of Global Wave events. Send the photo/video of the wave to Global Wave 2015 or PNND for presentation to the governments at the NPT Review Conference.  
IPU President Saber Chowdhury leads an informal 'wave goodbye to nuclear weapons' at the 132nd IPU Assembly

On 31 March 2015, Saber Chowdhury, President of the Inter Parliamentary Union (and PNND Co-President) led an informal ‘Wave goodbye to nuclear weapons’ at the 132nd IPU Assembly. Mr Chowdhury was joined in the wave by delegations from the parliaments of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Iceland, Monaco, Netherlands and New Zealand.

IPU President Saber Chowdhury with Netherlands Senator Nico Schrijver

This was one of a number of actions to follow-up the resolution ‘Toward a Nuclear Weapon Free World: The Contribution of Parliaments’, adopted at the 130th IPU Assembly in March 2014. The resolution ‘Calls on parliaments to work together and with governments and civil society to build momentum for a constructive NPT Review Conference in 2015.’

The resolution also calls on parliamentarians to ‘urge their governments to start negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention or package of agreements to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world.’ The significance of the resolution is that it was adopted with the participation and consent of parliaments from virtually all of the countries possessing nuclear weapons, as well as those under extended nuclear deterrence relationships.

Global Wave 2015, promotes a similar platform to the IPU resolution – calling on the governments meeting at the NPT Review Conference to agree to commence negotiations leading to the global prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

See Global Wave News for examples of Global Wave events that might give inspiration to your plans to ‘Wave goodbye to nuclear weapons.’

Click here for the video of the IPU 'wave goodbye to nuclear weapons'.

 

penny hardaway nike air max blue springs