wfn.org | Ecumenists urge diplomats to press for a nuke-free world

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>Ecumenical delegation urges diplomats
>to push for a nuclear-free world

>See www.ncccusa.org/100609nptfolo.html

>By Jonathan Frerichs

New York, June 9, 2010 -- Is it time to start work on banning nuclear  weapons?

"Yes" says a growing majority of governments and civil society groups.  "No" 
insists a tiny nuclear-armed minority. "Premature" say some of  their closest 
allies. 

That is the barest summary of what happened at the United Nations when  189 
countries met recently on what to do about nuclear weapons. Churches  seeking 
specific steps to stop nuclear arms shared long-standing  disappointments -- 
plus a few new grounds for hope -- with many  governments and most of the 120 
civil society organizations in New York  during May for the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review  conference. 

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation, including National Council  of 
Churches USA general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, met  with a 
cross-section of the governments at the conference to promote  first steps 
toward a legal ban, a critical set of 10-year-old arms  control steps, the 
nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, and  other issues from six decades 
of ecumenical opposition to nuclear  armaments.  

The tiny minority of treaty states with nuclear weapons -- the United  States, 
Russia, China, United Kingdom and France -- showed little of  the will that 
would be required to actually eliminate their arsenals and  end their status as 
nuclear-weapon states. But the U.S. and U.K.  provided new information about 
the size of their nuclear arsenals, and  all five governments were subjected to 
the majority will on several  fronts.

The pressures included a growing demand for a legal ban of nuclear  weapons, an 
unmet promise to keep nuclear weapons out of the Middle  East, a stronger 
stigma against nuclear weapons use, and increasing  international impatience 
with the nuclear-weapon states over their  treaty obligations. After much 
debate, each of these issues gained a new lease on life via  the conference 
action plan.

Compared to the same review conference five years ago, such references  are a 
kind of success. Compared to the recently rekindled vision of a  world without 
any nuclear weapons, the decisions are modest nods in the  right direction.

Demonstrating grassroots and global concern, the WCC delegates presented  the 
United Kingdom delegation with a joint petition backed by eight  major UK 
churches.

Kinnamon cited the call of sister churches in the UK for their  government to 
support the negotiation of "a nuclear weapons convention  that would make the 
possession of nuclear weapons illegal". He noted  that the WCC was bringing 
similar requests from churches in Europe,  Asia, Australia and the Americas to 
their governments at the conference.

In twelve government meetings the WCC delegates also raised a set of  practical 
steps agreed by the NPT conference of 2000. "The steps need to  be updated to 
address current disarmament challenges. But this time  there must be a timeline 
for implementation of the steps," WCC delegate  Dr. Ninan Koshy said. Koshy is 
an analyst, commentator and former WCC advocacy director from  India. After 
four weeks of civil society groups and governments making  the same point, 
steps with some deadlines were included in the  conference action plan.  
   Two-thirds of the governments and most of the 120 non-governmental  
organizations present called for a process leading to negotiation of a  
convention banning nuclear weapons. The nuclear-weapon states insisted  on 
watering down the reference to simply "note" the idea and omit the  proposed 
timelines, but even that was seen as progress.
 
"The high aspirations which churches place on achieving critical  long-term 
goals like nuclear disarmament have proved themselves in  various fields," 
moderator of the European Council of Religious Leaders  Rev. Dr Gunnar 
Stalsett, former bishop of Oslo and member of the WCC  delegation, said to one 
government. "Such hopes can play a vital role in  supporting incremental steps 
toward the ultimate goal."

The WCC delegation supported an agreement to open talks on a Middle East  zone 
free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, which became  one of the 
conference's most important achievements. "The Arab and  Israeli positions are 
not mutually exclusive -- there cannot be peace  without security, or security 
without peace. Therefore we call on  regional state delegations to make a clear 
commitment to parallel peace  and arms control tracks," said a joint civil 
society paper on the issue,  which WCC helped prepare.

In its final document the NPT conference welcomed the establishment of  new 
nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, which churches helped realize,  and 
Central Asia. Prior to the conference, the WCC presented church  activities to 
a meeting of civil society groups and governments from  five 
nuclear-weapon-free zones that cover the Southern Hemisphere and  adjacent 
countries north of the equator.

Jonathan Frerichs, WCC program executive for peace building and  disarmament, 
is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

>---

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of  Christ in 
the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation  among Christians 
in the United States. The NCC's member faith groups -  from a wide spectrum of 
Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,  historic African American and 
Living Peace churches - include 45 million  persons in more than 100,000 local 
congregations in communities across  the nation.

>---

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 
(cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org see www.ncccusa.org