Turn Back the Doomsday Clock

To the States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 

Your Excellencies,

You are meeting at the United Nations in Geneva from July 22 to August 2, 2024 as the world is embroiled in devastating armed conflicts, an erosion of multilateralism and the rule of law, a renewed nuclear arms race, increased risks and specific threats to use nuclear weapons, increasingly severe climate-change induced disasters and a looming existential threat to humanity from high levels of Green House Gas emissions. 

The seriousness of this situation was highlighted by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in January this year when they set the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 90 Seconds to Midnight.

As current and former legislators/parliamentarians from around the world, we call on you to use this opportunity to ‘Turn Back the Doomsday Clock’ - to elevate diplomacy, cooperative leadership, common security and the rule of law in order to prevent nuclear war, resolve international conflicts peacefully, protect the climate for current and future generations and, in particular, to set in motion concrete processes to achieve the peace and security of a nuclear-weapon-free world. 

The international community needs to place higher priority on building peace and protecting our common future, than on preparing for and conducting war and on maintaining a fossil fuel dominated economy. Governments, for example, collectively allocate over $2,200 billion to the military annually to prepare for and engage in armed conflict, compared to only $6 billion allocated to the United Nations to help secure peace and a sustainable world. Governments collectively provide $7,000 billion per year in subsidies to fossil fuels, nearly 20 times more than collective subsidies for renewable energies. 

These priorities should change.

Our predominant security framework should be common security – which focuses on resolving international conflicts and protecting our future through diplomacy, cooperation and the rule of law – and on environmental security, rather than provocative nuclear weapons policies, conventional arms races and threats to use force. 

Better use of common security mechanisms to ensure national and regional security - such as the United Nations and International Court of Justice - will enable countries to phase out the reliance on nuclear deterrence, reduce the reliance on military defence and liberate resources to support climate protection and sustainable development. 

We welcome the UN General Assembly decision to hold a UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 to strengthen ‘Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’ and advance the above objectives. 

We welcome the efforts made at the 2023 NPT Preparatory Committee to reduce the risk of nuclear war, including to consider support for unilateral, bilateral and multilateral initiatives on no-first-use and non-use of nuclear weapons.

We welcome also the Vancouver Declaration adopted at the 30th Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on July 4, 2023 which “Encourages all participating states to redouble international efforts to achieve the global elimination of nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework, including by negotiating a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention (NWC) or framework of agreements as recommended in the final document of the eight Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or by signing and ratifying the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).”

We are encouraged by the incredibly high rate of success of the International Court of Justice in resolving international disputes that are submitted to it for resolution, as reported by the President of the ICJ to the UN Security Council in January 2023. 

And we highlight the Luanda Declaration - adopted at the 147th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (which has 180 member parliaments) on October 27, 2023 - which “reaffirms parliamentarians’ belief in the rule of law, at both the national and international level, as the foundation of conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in dialogue and diplomacy as the only way towards lasting peace” and encourages "more frequent use of the International Court of Justice and other international judicial institutions as key tools to resolve disputes between countries peacefully."

In this light, we encourage you as States Parties to the NPT, to advance the following at the 2024 NPT Conference and at the UN Summit of the Future:

1. An immediate end to the modernisation and production of nuclear weapons;
2. A collective affirmation that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible as was agreed by G20 leaders at their Summit in Bali, and that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal as was affirmed by the International Court of Justice;
3. Commitments by nuclear armed and allied states to phase out the role of nuclear weapons in security policies starting with no-first-use policies;
4. A global commitment to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2045 – the 75th anniversary of the NPT;
5. Commencement of a collective process for the global elimination of nuclear weapons, which could involve negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention, adoption of a framework agreement for nuclear disarmament, or negotiations of protocols to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to enable accession by nuclear-armed and allied states;
6. Affirmation of the important role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assist in the peaceful resolution of international conflicts and implementation of the rule of law, and encouragement of all countries to accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ as recommended by the UN Secretary-General (currently 74 countries accept such jurisdiction);
7. Affirm the current regional nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) and support the establishment of additional NWFZs including a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction and a North-East Asia NWFZ;
8. Actions to cut nuclear weapons budgets and public investments in the nuclear weapons industry, and to re-purpose these resources to instead support public health, peace, climate stabilization and sustainable development.
9. Commencement of negotiations of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, inspired by the NPT, to phase out the extraction of fossil fuels and their emissions. 

We appeal to you to rise to this challenge, to reach beyond the dangerous and unsustainable status quo of threat postures and nuclear arms races, and to respond positively to the above recommendations, in the knowledge that your leadership will have strong backing from parliamentarians and civil society globally. 

Click here to endorse the appeal.

Endorsers: (List in formation)

• Rabeeah Abuoras MP (Libya). Member, Libyan Parliament. Chairman, Committee on Public Freedoms and Human Rights. Chairman, National Committee for Sustainable Development.
• Tadatoshi Akiba (Japan). Member of Japanese House of Representatives 1990-1999. Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace, 1999-2011.
• Agho Oliver Bamenju MP (Cameroon). Member, Cameroon National Assembly. Member, InterParliamentary Task-Force on Human Trafficking.
• Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo MP (Switzerland). Member of the Zurich Parliament. Moderator, Global Minority Parliamentarians Caucus.
• Ariane Burgess MSP (Scotland). Convenor, Scottish Parliament Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
• Saber Chowdhury MP (Bangladesh). Bangladesh Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Honorary President, Inter-Parliamentary Union. PNND Co-President.
• Sven Clement MP (Luxembourg). Member, Chambre des Députés.
• Uffe Elbæk (Denmark). Former Minister for Culture, party leader and member of the Danish Parliament. 
• María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador). Member of Ecuador Parliament 2009- 2013 serving as Minister of Heritage (2009-20012), Foreign Affairs (2007) and Defence (2012-2014). Ambassador of Ecuador to the UN in Geneva (2008-2009 and 2014-2017). President of the UN General Assembly (2018-2019). 
• Dr. Ute Finckh-Krämer (Germany). Member, German Parliament, 2013-2017. Former Deputy-Chair, Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. PNND Council Member.
• Dr Hedy Fry MP (Canada). OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Gender Issues. PNND Council member.
• Marco Grimaldi MP (Italy), Vice President of the Green Left Alliance. Member of the Parliament Commission on Budget, Treasury and Programming. 
• Hon Marian Hobbs (Aotearoa-New Zealand). Member of Parliament 1996-2008. Minister for the Environment, 1999-2005. Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, 2002-2005.
• Tadashi Inuzuka (Japan). Former Senator from Nagasaki. Executive Director, 3+3 Coalition for a North-East Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. Co-President, World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy. PNND Council Member. 
• Hon Chidakwa James MP (Zimbabwe). Member of the Zimbabwe Parliament. Human Rights Defender.
• Francine John-Calame (Switzerland). Member, Swiss Federal Assembly, 2005-2015. PNND Council Member. 
• Andrés Ingi Jónsson MP (Iceland). Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Deputy Head of the Icelandic delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
• Birgitta Jónsdóttir (Iceland). Poet. Member of Althing (Parliament), 2009-2017. Co-Founder, Iceland Pirate Party. 
• Graham Kelly (Aotearoa-New Zealand). Member, New Zealand Parliament 1987-2003. NZ High Commissioner to Canada, 2003-2006. Inaugural Chair, PNND New Zealand. 
• Bill Kidd MSP (Scotland). PNND Co-President. Convenor of the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Nuclear Disarmament.
• Margareta Kiener Nellen (Switzerland). Member, Switzerland Parliament, 2003-2019. Former Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's human rights and humanitarian affairs committee. PNND Council Member. Board Member, Peace Women Across the Globe.
• Kimmo Kiljunen MP (Finland). Member, Foreign Affairs Committee. Special Representative for Peace Mediation of the Foreign Minister of Finland since 2011. Vice-President, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 2001-2004 and 2007-2010. Former Secretary General, International Peace Bureau. 
• Jasmine Krotkov (USA). Member, Montana State Legislature, 2019-2021. 
• Baroness Ruth Lister of Burtersett CBE (UK). Member of the House of Lords. 
• Ruth Maguire MSP (Scotland). Member, Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Nuclear Disarmament.
• Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer  (UK). Member of the House of Lords. PNND Co-President.
• Michel Monod (Switzerland). Former Member, Ville de Vernier Municipal Parliament.
• Christine Muttonen (Austria). Member of the Austrian Parliament 1999-2017. President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 2016-2017. PNND Co-President.
• Richard Northey (Aotearoa-New Zealand). Member, New Zealand Parliament, 1984-1990 and  1993-1996. Chair, Peace and Disarmament Collective Aotearoa.
• Senator Andrea J Olsen (USA). Member, Montana State Legislature. 
• Ambrose Otachi (Kenya), Former Member of Parliament.
• Prof Dr (med) Kayihan Pala MP (Turkey). Member Grand National Assembly of Turkey. President of the Bursa Medical Chamber, 2010-2014. 
• Eva Quistorp  (Germany). Former Member of the European Parliament. Senior advisor of World Future Council. Co-founder, Women's International Day for Peace and Disarmament (May 24).
• Margaret Reynolds AC (Australia). Member, Australian Senate, 1983-1999. National President of Women’s international  League for Peace And Freedom, Australian Section.
• Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C. (Canada). Member, Canada House of Commons, 1972-1984. Canada's Disarmament Ambassador to the UN, 1984-1989. Member, Canada Senate, 1998-2004.  Founding Chair, PNND. 
• Dorien Rookmaker MEP (Netherlands). Member of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
• David Stögmüller MP (Austria). Member of Delegation of Austria to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
• Teanau Tuiono MP (Aotearoa-New Zealand), Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
• Celia Wade-Brown QSO (Aotearoa-New Zealand). Member of New Zealand House of Representatives. Chair, MP Parliamentary Engagement Committee. Mayor of Wellington, 2010-2016.
• Jim Walsh (Ireland). Former Senator. Former Head of the Ireland Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. 
• Uta Zapf (Germany). Member, German Parliament 1990-2013. Chair, Parliament Subcommittee on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation 1998-2013. Inaugural PNND Co-President.