24 July 2024

The Australian-born Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is among 125 civil society organisations to join a statement delivered to a conference of the nations that have joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the United Nations in Geneva this week. 

The statement addresses the AUKUS trilateral military partnership and calls for AUKUS members to “make firm their commitments to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament by joining the TPNW as a matter of urgency.”

“There remains an urgent need to critique the nuclear proliferation risks posed by AUKUS,” it reads.

“The Australian decision to enter into agreements around nuclear-powered submarines was made on the assumption that it would be permitted to divert nuclear material for a non-proscribed military purpose, by utilising Paragraph 14 of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA). The ‘loophole’ of Paragraph 14 potentially allows non-nuclear-armed states to acquire nuclear material which would be removed from IAEA safeguards.

“Australia’s proposed acquisition of large quantities of HEU outside of usual IAEA safeguards and scrutiny jeopardises non-proliferation efforts and fissile material security. This conference has the mandate to prepare recommendations for the upcoming Review Conference to strengthen rather than weaken the global non-proliferation regime by moving to close the Paragraph 14 loophole. States represented here today should negotiate the closure of the Paragraph 14 loophole in the NPT.

“To eliminate the risk of non-nuclear weapons states acquiring nuclear weapons grade HEU, all states, including AUKUS members, should refrain from sharing the technology and materials that will be transferred if Australia and others acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The paragraph 14 loophole undermines the NPT and needs to be closed.”

Those who signed the statement are “concerned that AUKUS may exacerbate regional tensions, fuel an arms race and increase risks of war in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly involving China and the United States, and will increase the danger of nuclear escalation in any such conflict.”

Acting Director of ICAN Australia Jemila Rushton said “there are real concerns among Australia’s neighbours, trading partners and international civil society about Australia’s planned acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. The current alarming risk of nuclear war demands Australia choose to be part of the solution to nuclear dangers rather than being part of the problem by continuing to contribute to the possible use of nuclear weapons and intensifying proliferation risks. The best way that Australia can do this is by joining the TPNW.” 

The civil society signatories call for AUKUS members to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to “legally confirm that they will not acquire or host nuclear weapons, nor assist with their use or threat of use” and “make firm their commitments to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, as a matter of urgency.”

Thomas Huckans, Youth Activist from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) and its youth initiative, Reverse The Trend (RTT), USA delivered the statement. He said “It was an honour to speak on behalf of ICAN Australia and to engage directly with the grave threat posed to the disarmament architecture by the transfer of nuclear submarines to Australia. As a youth activist, my vision is to one day see a global atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation, and I want to ensure that current leaders do not endanger the world young people will soon inherit.”

Link to video and to read the full statement: https://icanw.org.au/aukus_npt_2024/ 

In a new video released today, members of the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons renew their support for Australia joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Their joint message demonstrates how parliamentarians from across the political spectrum are working together to see the Treaty signed and ratified.

Featured in the video are Susan Templeman MP (ALP), Member for Macquarie, Jordan, Steele-John (GRN), Senator for Western Australia, Monique Ryan MP (IND), Member for Kooyong, Russell Broadbent (IND), Member for Monash, Sam Lim MP (ALP), Member for Tangney, Louise Pratt (ALP), Senator for Western Australia, Lidia Thorpe (IND), Senator for Victoria, Sharon Claydon MP (ALP), Member for Newcastle, Josh Burns MP (ALP), Member for Macnamara, and Josh Wilson MP (ALP), Member for Fremantle.

In the video, they state: “The TPNW is giving countries and citizens across the world hope, and a new and promising pathway towards the abolition of these weapons. […] It’s about continuing Australian leadership when it comes to nuclear disarmament.  It’s about working with our closest neighbours and collaborating with our Pacific family. It’s about recognising and supporting victims of nuclear weapons testing. For First Nations survivors, for Australia’s nuclear veterans.”

In response to the video, Jemila Rushton, Acting Director for ICAN Australia said: “Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have today reaffirmed that they are ‘working together to see the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty signed and ratified’.

“In these times of incredible global insecurity, this joint message of hope demonstrates that leaders can come together across party lines to address the critical existential issues of our time.

“We now need to see this hope turned into action and the TPNW signed without delay. The Labor Party has committed to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in government. Today’s video release demonstrates that support in the parliament for Australia to join this treaty continues to grow.  Now is the time to act.

“Banning nuclear weapons, the worst of the weapons of mass destruction, has always been an issue that is beyond party politics. ICAN Australia will continue to work alongside parliamentarians in Government, in Opposition and on the crossbench until the TPNW is signed and ratified. 

In the video, they state:

Today, 93 countries around the world are signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – the TPNW. 

They are signed up to the legally-binding commitment to comprehensively ban nuclear weapons.

Developing them, testing them, producing them, assisting with them, possessing them, threatening to use them, and using them are banned.

The TPNW is giving countries and citizens across the world hope, and a new and promising pathway towards the abolition of these weapons.

It’s about understanding that what we cannot prepare for and what we can adequately respond to, we must prevent. 

It’s about continuing Australian leadership when it comes to nuclear disarmament. 

It’s about working with our closest neighbours and collaborating with our Pacific family.

It’s about recognising and supporting victims of nuclear weapons testing. For First Nations survivors, for Australia’s nuclear veterans.

As members of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW, we are working together to see the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty signed and ratified.

We are proud of our country’s commitment to getting rid of other inhumane weapons, like landmines, cluster munitions, biological, and chemical weapons.

We welcome Australia’s engagement with the TPNW under the Albanese Government and we pay tribute to the community activism being undertaken in support of Australia joining this treaty.

History is calling.  

Media inquiries: Jesse Boylan: 0457 777 504 – jesse@icanw.org

In response to the Albanese Government’s release of the 2024 Defence Strategic Review, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, ICAN Australia, says it’s time for Australia to cease the policy of supporting the use of nuclear weapons on our behalf and to abandon the myth of Extended Nuclear Deterrence (END) once and for all. 

Section 1.25 of the Review states that “Russia, China and North Korea are building more diverse and sophisticated nuclear arsenals, while Iran continues to breach its nuclear-related obligations. Australia’s best protection against the increasing risk of nuclear escalation is US extended nuclear deterrence and the pursuit of new avenues of arms control.”

ICAN Australia Acting Director, Jemila Rushton, said that “relying on END signals a support for the potential use of nuclear weapons, which would wreak a humanitarian catastrophe on hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of people. This policy supports the use and possession of nuclear weapons, but  it is clearly illegal under the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It’s time for Australia to move to a nuclear weapon-free defence policy, end our support for END, and join the TPNW.”

“Australia is out of step with our region in continuing to imagine that “nuclear deterrence” makes us safer.

“Almost all countries from our region recognise the enormous risk nuclear weapons pose, either from intentional use, hacking/disruptive technologies, or just human or technical error. In the last few decades, we have had multiple near misses. We cannot continue to rely on luck. 

“Our regional neighbours recognise nuclear weapons as the worst of the weapons of mass destruction. Almost all have already signed the TPNW.

“Australia has signed all the multilateral treaties banning other weapons of mass destruction. Signing the TPWW is indeed “a new avenue for arms control” and would not only reduce the risk of proliferation but also increase pressure on nuclear armed states to re-enter negotiations for verifiable, balanced reductions in stockpiles.

“Australia must listen to the 92 countries who met late last year at the Second Meeting of States parties (2MSP)  to the TPNW when they said that the “perpetuation and implementation of nuclear deterrence in military and security concepts, doctrines and policies not only erodes and contradicts nonproliferation, but also obstructs progress towards nuclear disarmament.” Nuclear deterrence has been sold to us as a ‘guarantee of security’, when it is actually a flawed and dangerous gamble.”

In their conclusion to 2MSP, ICAN International stated “There remains an information gap between what would actually happen as a result of nuclear war and the policies of the nuclear-armed states and their allies, and efforts to bridge this gap are the primary responsibility of those whose policies include the use of nuclear weapons.”

MEDIA RELEASE: Independents pressure Australia on nuclear ban treaty ahead of UN meeting

November 24th, 2023

11 independent parliamentarians have issued a public call on the Prime Minister to keep Labor’s promise to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, ahead of the treaty’s Second Meeting of States Parties on 27 November – 1 December in New York.

The letter, which is signed by Kate Chaney MP, Zoe Daniel MP, Dr. Helen Haines MP, Senator David Pocock, Dr. Monique Ryan MP, Dr. Sophie Scamps MP, Allegra Spender MP, Zali Steggall OAM MP, Senator Lidia Thorpe, Kylea Tink MP, and Andrew Wilkie MP, states that “nuclear weapons do not promote security, they undermine it. We don’t accept the everlasting presence of these weapons.” They “urge the Government to advance its signature and ratification of the Ban Treaty without delay, to bring Australia in line with our South-East Asian and Pacific island neighbours.”

In regards to the letter, Federal Member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel MP, said: “Voters supported Labor at the election, believing in good faith that they would implement their platform. 

“Signing and ratifying was Labor Party policy before the election and has been reaffirmed since.

“In the most perilous times since the height of the Cold War this treaty is needed more than ever; voters want it and so do the vulnerable nations of the Pacific whose backyards were used for nuclear testing without their permission.

“Look at what Labor does, not what it says.”

Australia will attend the Second Meeting of States Parties as an observer, with a parliamentary head of delegation, after attending the first Meeting of States Parties in June 2022. It is expected that several states, including Indonesia, will ratify the treaty during the meeting, bolstering universalisation efforts. Around 100 countries will attend, along with over 400 civil society delegates. 

Gem Romuld, ICAN Australia Director, welcomed the independents’ statement and Australia’s attendance at the meeting, but said the Albanese Government must do more, in line with their policy platform to sign and ratify the treaty. 

“We welcome the Australian government’s engagement with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but observing meetings isn’t enough. There is clearly broad support for signing on to this treaty in the Australian Parliament, as indicated by the independents’ statement to the PM.

“Labor needs to make good on their promise to join the majority of our South East Asian and Pacific neighbours and sign and ratify the TPNW. We hope that Australia’s attendance at this meeting will spur efforts towards this urgent goal.”

Romuld is joining the international ICAN delegation at the meeting, including Yankunytjatjara-Anangu woman and second-generation nuclear test survivor Karina Lester, and current ICAN Executive Director, former Labor MP Melissa Parke.

STATEMENT: ICAN Australia calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

November 2nd, 2023

ICAN Australia supports the urgent calls of the United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for the protection of civilians on all sides of this conflict. This war is not only a humanitarian catastrophe, but also has a nuclear dimension. Israel is known to possess around 90 nuclear weapons*, although it refuses to confirm or deny this.

The conflict has already expanded to involve Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the United States, and other nations indirectly. Australia too has deployed military forces to the region, for purposes not publicly explained. Such expansion and escalation pose a real danger that nuclear weapons could be used. 

The use of any nuclear weapons is prohibited under international humanitarian law, precisely because of the inhumane and indiscriminate nature of such weapons. Adding to the growing humanitarian catastrophe already present in the region, the added danger of nuclear weapons use should alarm all Australians.

Australia’s abstention in the recent UN General Assembly vote for a ceasefire was deeply disappointing; several allies of the US voted in favour of this resolution on humanitarian grounds, and Australia should have done the same. We support an immediate ceasefire and call on our government to take a stronger stance on international humanitarian issues.

The very real dangers of escalation of this conflict and the potential for use of nuclear weapons highlights the need for the complete elimination of these inhumane and illegal weapons. Australia must join the 93 states which have already signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and increase its efforts to protect all civilians in the region.

*Federation of American Scientists 2023

MEDIA RELEASE: “Australia should end its ambivalent attitude towards nuclear weapons,” says Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation, ICAN.

October 28th, 2023

At the UN General Assembly’s First Committee today, Australia has failed to take a strong humanitarian stance against nuclear weapons. 

Key points:

• Australia abstained on the resolution on the Humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons (L.23) 136 voted in favour, 13 against, and 33 abstentions. 
• Australia abstained on the resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (L.24). 124 voted in favour, 43 against, and 14 abstentions. 
• Australia voted yes on the resolution on victim assistance and environmental remediation for nuclear weapons impacts, but abstained on two paragraphs. (L.52) 171 voted in favour, 4 against and 6 abstentions.

Australia abstained on a resolution titled “Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons”, as it had done in previous years. The resolution stresses “that it is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons never be used again, under any circumstances.” It also calls upon all states “to prevent the use of nuclear weapons, to prevent their vertical and horizontal proliferation and to achieve nuclear disarmament”. 136 states voted in favour, 13 against, with 33 abstentions. 

Australia maintained a position to abstain on a resolution titled “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” which, inter alia, “Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to the Treaty at the earliest possible date.” Australia abstained on this resolution for the first time in 2022, after the Coalition government’s practice of voting against the resolution.

Australia voted yes, with abstentions on certain paragraphs, on a resolution that has been introduced to the First Committee for the first time this year, titled “Addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons: providing victim assistance and environmental remediation to Member States affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons.” Australia abstained on paragraph 16 which notes the humanitarian provisions on victim assistance and environmental remediation contained in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as well as operational paragraph 3, which recognises “the responsibility to address the harms resulting from a detonation of using or testing a nuclear weapon or any other nuclear explosive device lies, respectively, with the Member States that have done so.”

“Australia should end its ambivalent attitude towards nuclear weapons,” said Gem Romuld, ICAN Australia Director. “These are horrific, unacceptable weapons no matter which country possesses them.”

In August 2023 Labor adopted an updated policy platform that acknowledges the ongoing consequences of nuclear testing in Australia and the Pacific, reaffirms Labor’s commitment to sign and ratify the treaty and commits Labor to take steps to assist victims and remediate environments impacted by nuclear testing. 

“While it’s positive that Australia voted yes on the victim assistance and environmental remediation resolution, it’s deeply disappointing that it abstained on two paragraphs that acknowledge the role of the TPNW in advancing international cooperation on this work, and would signal a commitment to further support survivors of nuclear weapons testing here in Australia”, said Romuld.

“Failing to recognise the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at the UN contradicts Labor’s platform which ‘Acknowledges the deep and ongoing consequences of nuclear testing in Australia, which have been borne disproportionately by our First Nations peoples, as well as testing in the Pacific.’ “There is no good reason for Australia to abstain on the resolution that acknowledges the devastating humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons,” said Romuld.

“Voting yes on the TPNW motion would be in line with popular support for the treaty and the Labor government’s own commitment to sign and ratify it. We hope that as Labor continues to engage positively with the TPNW, we will see Australia’s position shift in the future.” 

The UN votes come just weeks after the 70th anniversary of the first mainland nuclear test  at Emu Field in South Australia, and the call from 132 civil society organisations on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to demonstrate Australia’s commitment to nuclear disarmament and assist nuclear victims and impacted environments by signing the TPNW.

Australia will observe the Second Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW at the UN from 27 November to 1 December 2023.