Civil Society and Nuclear Disarmament

– What Role Do We Play And What Responsibility Do We Hold?

WMD Commission Recommendation on Civil

SocietyRecommendation 52:

States should assist non-governmental organizations to participate actively in international meetings and conferences and to inform and campaign in the weapons of mass destruction field. Private foundations should substantially increase their support for organizations that are working to eliminate global weapons of mass destruction threats

What Role Do We Play?• Lobbying decision makers• Spreading the message – raising public

interest – increasing public pressure on decision makers

• Participating in and reporting from international disarmament meetings- Making information available- Making information comprehensive

• Coordinated and sustained effort

Why Should Civil Society Do It?

• Lack of political will among decision makers – taking the bull by the horns

• Ordinary concerned people making ordinary people concerned – making the abstract concrete

• Bottom-up perspective – less need for political correctness and diplomatic euphemisms

What is ok to talk about

… and what is really not mentioned

Defining Human Security• Protecting people from critical

and pervasive threats and situations

• Protecting vital freedoms through protection and empowerment

• Building on people’s strengths and aspirations

• Creating systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihoodUN Human Security Commission report ”Human Security Now” (2003)

Civil society can emphasize the need for a human security perspective when states hide behind

technical, clinical rethorics around nuclear weapons

Gender and Disarmament

• Unequal representation of women and men in nuclear disarmament negotiations- gendered roles – who fits better?

- reduced participation possibilities for women globally (education, social status etc.)

• Use of gendered language - Nuclear weapons as masculinizing, disarmament as demasculinizing