|
UNANZ Northern Region Branch ‘Peace and Disarmament –NZ's Role' PUBLIC SPEAKERS FORUM United Nations Day - 24 th Oct. ‘06 7:30pm Tuesday St. Columba Centre, Ponsonby, Auckland
The UNANZ (NRB) held a Public Speakers Forum on ‘Peace and Disarmament-NZ's Role' for United Nations Day on 24 th October. This event featured four main speakers who presented an insightful, well-informed combination of perspectives on the topic. There was common recognition of what is blocking the progress towards fulfilling the U.N. Charter principles and goals of Disarmament. But also that it is ‘we the people..' who must maintain our support for the New Zealand government representatives at the U.N. who strive for agreement and ratification of peace and disarmament treaties. Larry Ross, Founder/Secretary of the successful New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone and Peacemaker Campaign, showed how NZ had achieved this goal in the 1980s based on the sustained well organised lobbying of the people. He emphasised why we must continue to reinforce this position and resist the recurring attempts to weaken our collective resolve. This must include positive remits and submissions from UNANZ and other citizen groups on how to further develop our Nuclear Free Peacemaker policy to our Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Also, there should be more public education on the benefits to NZ from our Nuclear Free foreign policy which allows us to be a trusted peacemaker in the international community, in order to prevent war or being involved in future wars as well as how NZ could better help survivors of war with food, humanitarian aid and offer trained men as U.N. Peacekeepers. He then outlined various scenarios that could lead the world into a nuclear war and how even New Zealanders could be misled into thinking that nuclear war was justifiable or acceptable, perhaps as a result of a ‘false flag' operation. In addition, he presented his enormous research on current nuclear threats in the world particularly in relation to Iran. He explained the danger of Iran being attacked for ‘potentially' having nuclear weapon material. It could result in another illegal war like the one in Iraq. One of the most alarming problems is that the U.S. has a new policy of pre-emptive ‘first strike' war doctrine which it may exercise against both nuclear and non-nuclear states. For more info. contact www.nuclearfreenz.org.nz Joan MacDonald, a veteran peaceworker of Auckland, presented an understanding of the rich historical heritage of the peace movement in NZ. She works mainly with the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, established 100 years ago, which has NGO status at the United Nations. She also talked about the importance to refocus on the Nuclear Free Pacific Campaign and various other peace and justice related issues particularly those effecting women. Joan says that ‘The right to peace and security is the fundamental principle underlying all human righst agreements and is implicit in the majority of UN documents, beginning with the UN Charter. Securit continues to be perceived in its narrowest sense, as military, rather than human secuirity which comes from social justcie, peace, human rights, a clean safe environment and an economy which works for everyone.' Marian Hobbs MP, ex-Minister for Disarmament is a brilliant public speaker and a powerful proponent of New Zealand's role in the world as a Nuclear Free peacemaker nation. She revealed how much this government has done to carry out the peacework principles, as advocated by people in the peace movement, into official national policy and onto the UN international platform. (we are the only nation with a Minister of Disarmament) She explained the current failure to make progress on the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, which is the foundation for nuclear disarmament in the world. In April/May '07 there will renewed efforts to get back on track for the NPT Review Conference in 2010. One major step would be to negotiate a Treaty cutting off production of fissile material that is the essential ingredient for nuclear weapons. Another key area is the Third Review Conference in Geneva addressing the urgent need to curb production and trade of Conventional Weapons and ban Inhumane Weapons ie. cluster munitions, which most contravene the ideas of international humanitarian law. It is estimated that there are 1 million unexploded cluster bombs in South Lebanon. NZ is also committed to banning use of landmines. Kaspar Beech, gave a bold Powerpoint presentation on his work in Wellington, as Assistant Global Coordinator for the Parliamentarians Network for Nuclear Disarmament in conjunction with the Mayors for Peace Campaign. The PNND has 400 parliamentarians in 70 countries committed to the goal elimination of nuclear weapons, with 45 in NZ. He reminded us that there are still 30,000 nuclear weapons of which 4000 are on high alert. Both organisations have been actively pursuing the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as other initiatives ie. uniting 93 parliamentarians from European nations to remove U.S. nuclear weapons from their land. Under the Article Six Forum process, the PNND explores the legal, technical and politcial elements involved in achieving a nuclear weapons free world. He suggests that individuals and groups write to their Mayors to publicly endorse the ‘Mayors for Peace' and the Peace City concept. He recommends that people encourage their MPs to join the PNND to develop a united NZ voice to pursue the goals for peace and disarmament at the United Nations. (for more info. go to www.pnnd.org or www.mayorsforpeace.org ) Laurie Ross, Vice President UNANZ (NRB) coordinated the event and acted as MC supporting Bruce Hucker (Dep. Mayor Auckland City) who did an excellent job of opening the meeting and offering the closing remarks about balancing the despair with the hope.
The meeting passed a Resolution that the UNANZ (Northern Region Branch) declare its support for the policy and and actions of the New Zealand government in its attempts to achieve disarmament through the United Nations Disarmament Programme. Also that it issue a Press Release supporting the NZ Minister of Disarmament Phil Goff at the UN Disarmament meeting in November. Moved by Simon Reeves (Lawyers for Disarmament) and seconded by Bob Scott of UNANZ. Copies of the papers presented by the speakers are available on the website www.unanz.org.nz or from laurie-ross@xtra.co.nz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
