HANDBOOK

This section is based on the publication Move the Nuclear Weapons Money: A Handbook for civil society and legislators published by IPB, PNND and WFC.

9. Resources

Action days and campaigns

UNFOLD ZERO

UNFOLD ZERO (www.unfoldzero.org) is a global platform promoting United Nations initiatives for nuclear disarmament. UNFOLD ZERO also highlights UN processes for resolving conflicts and achieving security without relying on nuclear deterrence or the threat or use of force. The platform promotes nuclear disarmament initiatives in the UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, International Court of Justice, other UN bodies and those of the UN Secretary-General.

UNFOLD ZERO is a joint project of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace, Basel Peace Office, Global Security Institute, Mayors for Peace, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and PragueVision Institute for Sustainable Security.

Campaigns have included Open the Door to a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World, in support of the UN Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, and Chain Reaction, a series of civil society actions and events around the world from 8 July until 2 October 2016.

UNFOLD ZERO also organizes actions and events for UN days relating to nuclear disarmament (see Commemoration Days on the left).

Global Campaign on Military Spending

The Global Campaign on Military Spending (www.demilitarize.org) was launched on 10 December 2014 by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) to tackle the worldwide issue of excessive military spending. The campaign builds on over a decade of work done by IPB and others around the theme of Disarmament for Sustainable Development. It incorporates the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) – now in its 5th year.

GDAMS is arranged to coincide with the release of the annual world military expenditure figures by SIPRI. It also coincides with Tax Day in the US, when Americans pay their taxes and debate their use. Many types of activities are organised, from physical actions (flash-mobs, street theatre/demonstrations, banner displays, seminars, signature collections or concerts) to social media campaigns (Thunderclap, selfies or groupies on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, video productions on Youtube).

IPB proposes that the money released from the military budget could be made available to five broad alternative areas: peace, sustainable development, climate change and biodiversity loss, public services/green job-creation and humanitarian programmes to support the most vulnerable groups. These are all part of a wider global transformation towards a culture of peace.

Move the Money

Move the Money (www.peace-action.org/issues/move-the-money) is a US campaign that is part of the Global Campaign on Military Spending. It is coordinated by Peace Action in liaison with the National Priorities Project.

Peace Action points out that the U.S. spends nearly as much on its military as all other countries combined — at a time when critical domestic needs continue to be cut. The US Budget Control Act caps (aka “Sequestration”) since 2011 have deeply cut federal support for education, food programs, housing, transportation, and green energy. Reductions in the bloated military budget could free up federal funds for these human and social needs.

Three key demands made by the current Move the Money campaign are: 1) Flush the Slush Fund – Overseas Contingency Operations; 2) Cut the F-35 “Budget Buster”, and 3) Reduce Nuclear Weapons and Delivery Systems.

Don’t Bank on the Bomb

Don’t Bank on the Bomb (www.dontbankonthebomb.com) is a campaign organised by PAX (Netherlands) which encourages individuals and organisations to hold their bank accounts only in banks that do not invest in nuclear weapons. The campaign produces a Don’t Bank on the Bomb Report, which identifies both financial institutions that invest heavily in companies involved in nuclear weapon programmes, and those that have policies limiting or prohibiting such investments.

Commemoration Days

The following UN commemoration days are suitable for events and actions on nuclear disarmament, especially those relating to UN initiatives:

  • January 24: Anniversary of the first UN General Assembly resolution which established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.
  • July 8: Anniversary of the International Court of Justice case on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
  • August 29: UN International Day Against Nuclear Tests.
  • September 21: UN International Day for Peace.
  • September 26: UN International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
  • October 2: UN International Day for Non-Violence.

Two other important international dates, while not official UN observance days, are 6 and 9 August, the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945.

Resolutions and declarations

Inter-parliamentary bodies

Inter Parliamentary Union
www.ipu.org

Advancing nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: The Role of Parliaments

Resolution adopted by consensus by the 120th IPU Assembly on 10 April 2009. Supports a range of non-proliferation and disarmament measures including the CTBT, negotiations for a fissile material treaty, and the UN Secretary-General’s Five Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament.
Read the resolution

Toward a Nuclear Weapon Free World: The Contribution of Parliaments

Resolution adopted by consensus by the 130th IPU Assembly on 20 March 2014. Commits member parliaments to work with their governments to eliminate the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines, commence multilateral negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention or package of agreements, and build public awareness about nuclear weapons and disarmament including through the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
Read the resolution

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
www.oscepa.org

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Helsinki Declaration

Adopted by consensus by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on 9 July 2015. Welcomes the Humanitarian Pledge (on nuclear disarmament), supports the re-establishment of the UN Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, and calls on all OSCE States with nuclear weapons or under extended nuclear deterrence relationships to reduce the risks of a nuclear war by taking nuclear weapons off high-alert and by adopting no-first-use policies.

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Tbilisi Declaration

Adopted by consensus by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on 5 July 2016. Calls on all OSCE States with nuclear weapons or under extended nuclear deterrence relationships to reduce the risks of a nuclear war by taking nuclear weapons off high-alert and by adopting no-first-use policies. Calls on all OSCE States to join multilateral negotiations in 2017 on nuclear disarmament.

United Nations

UN Security Council

UN Security Council statement on military spending and development

Adopted on 19 November 2008, at a session chaired by Costa Rica. Supports national, bilateral, regional and multilateral measures aimed at reducing military expenditures. Urges all States to devote as many resources as possible to economic and social development, in particular in the fight against poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Read the resolution

UN General Assembly

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Final Document of the UN International Conference on Disarmament for Development

New York, 24 August – 11 September 1987. Adopted an action plan on ways to reduce military spending in order to fund social and economic goals.

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Relationship between Disarmament and Development

Annual UNGA resolution. See, for example A/RES/70/32, adopted by consensus on 7 December 2015. Urges the international community to devote part of the resources made available by the implementation of disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development. Calls for further implementation of the Action Plan from the 1987 International Conference on Disarmament for Development.

UN Secretary-General

Contagious Doctrine of Deterrence

24 October 2008. Speech of UNSG Ban Ki-moon releasing his Five Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament. In the speech, the UNSG notes the huge cost of nuclear weapons and the productive uses that these funds could instead be directed towards. Read the resolution

The World is Over-Armed and Peace is Under-funded

20 August 2012. Article by UNSG Ban Ki-moon published in numerous media sources around the world. Read the article

Legislators and civil society

A Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Our Common Good

A joint statement of legislators and religious leaders calling upon world leaders to commit to nuclear abolition, replace nuclear deterrence with shared security approaches to conflicts, and use the 100 billion dollars spent annually on nuclear weapons to be directed instead to reverse climate change, eliminate poverty and address other social and economic needs. Read the statement

Documents

About the publishers

International Peace Bureau

The International Peace Bureau is dedicated to the vision of a world without War. Our current main programme centres on Disarmament for Sustainable Development and within this, our focus is mainly on the reallocation of military expenditure. We support a range of disarmament campaigns and supply data on the economic dimensions of weapons and conflicts. Our 300 member organisations in 70 countries, together with individual members, form a global network, bringing together knowledge and campaigning experience in a common cause. We link experts and advocates working on similar issues in order to build strong civil society movements.

The Making Peace photo exhibition (www.makingpeace.org) has been visited by an estimated 1.2 million people since it was first presented in Geneva in 2010. The show was produced by the IPB and curated by Ashley Woods. Contact us if you’d like to bring the show to your city.

IPB has had Consultative Status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council since 1977. IPB plays a central role in the Geneva-based NGO Committee for Disarmament. There are sister committees in New York and Vienna. Together we follow various disarmament negotiations, within and outside the UN. We are a Nobel Peace Laureate (1910); in addition, 13 of our officers have over the years been recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

www.ipb.org

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament

Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) is a non-partisan forum for parliamentarians nationally and internationally to engage in nuclear risk reduction, nonproliferation and disarmament issues. We organize forums, build links between civil society and their elected representatives, and assist parliamentarians to engage in international disarmament processes.
Our membership of over 700 legislators includes current and former prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers, speakers/presidents of parliaments, heads of foreign affairs and defence committees, heads of inter-parliamentary bodies and others.

www.pnnd.org

World Future Council

The World Future Council (WFC) consists of 50 eminent global change-makers from governments, parliaments, civil society, academia, the arts and business who have already successfully created change.

We make politicians aware that they have an ethical responsibility to assess every decision-making process on the basis of how it will affect future generations. In close collaboration with civil society groups, members of parliament, governments, businesses and international organisations we research future just policies and legislation. We then advise political decision-makers, offer them tried and tested courses of action and support them in the concrete implementation of new policies.

www.worldfuturecouncil.org | www.futurepolicy.org

HANDBOOK

This section is based on the publication Move the Nuclear Weapons Money: A Handbook for civil society and legislators published by IPB, PNND and WFC.