Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world,in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term denuclearization is also used to describe the process leading to complete nuclear disarmament.
Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development,production,stockpiling,proliferation and usage of small arms,conventional weapons,and weapons of mass destruction. Historically,arms control may apply to melee weapons before the invention of firearm. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements,although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.
Disarmament is the act of reducing,limiting,or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction,such as nuclear arms. General and Complete Disarmament was defined by the United Nations General Assembly as the elimination of all WMD,coupled with the “balanced reduction of armed forces and conventional armaments,based on the principle of undiminished security of the parties with a view to promoting or enhancing stability at a lower military level,taking into account the need of all States to protect their security.”
A nuclear-free zone is an area in which nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question.
Greenpeace Aotearoa (GPAo) is one of New Zealand's largest environmental organisations,and is a national office of the global environmental organisation Greenpeace.
The Australia,New Zealand,United States Security Treaty is a 1951 collective security agreement initially formed as a trilateral agreement between Australia,New Zealand,and the United States;and from 1986 an agreement between New Zealand and Australia,and separately,Australia and the United States,to co-operate on military matters in the Pacific Ocean region,although today the treaty is taken to relate to conflicts worldwide. It provides that an armed attack on any of the three parties would be dangerous to the others,and that each should act to meet the common threat. It set up a committee of foreign ministers that can meet for consultation.
In 1987,the Fourth Labour Government passed the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone,Disarmament and Arms Control Act. The Act essentially declared New Zealand as a nuclear free zone. The purpose of the Act was ambitious and wide-ranging:“to establish in New Zealand a Nuclear Free Zone,to promote and encourage an active and effective contribution by New Zealand to the essential process of disarmament and international arms control”.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campaign helped bring about this treaty. ICAN was launched in 2007. In 2022,it counted 661 partner organizations in 110 countries.
Fri,a New Zealand yacht,led a flotilla of yachts in an international protest against atmospheric nuclear tests at Moruroa in French Polynesia in 1973. Fri was an important part of a series of anti-nuclear protest campaigns out of New Zealand which lasted thirty years,from which New Zealand declared itself a nuclear-free zone which was enshrined in legislation in what became the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone,Disarmament,and Arms Control Act 1987. In 1974,coordinated by Greenpeace New Zealand,the Fri embarked on a 3-year epic 25,000 mile "Pacific Peace Odyssey" voyage,carrying the peace message to all nuclear states around the world.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) was co-founded in Christchurch,New Zealand in 1959 with the help of Elsie Locke and Mary Woodward. Mabel Hetherington,who belonged to an earlier generation of peace activists from England,was largely responsible for setting up the organization in Auckland when she moved to New Zealand after World War II. With Alison Duff and Pat Denby,Hetherington carried it in Auckland through the 1960s. It was largely from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) and the Peace Media that Greenpeace New Zealand evolved.
In 1984,Prime Minister David Lange banned nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters. Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone,Disarmament,and Arms Control Act 1987,territorial sea,land and airspace of New Zealand became nuclear-free zones. This has since remained a part of New Zealand's foreign policy.
Anti-nuclear organizations may oppose uranium mining,nuclear power,and/or nuclear weapons. Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Some of the most influential groups in the anti-nuclear movement have had members who were elite scientists,including several Nobel Laureates and many nuclear physicists.
The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is an Office of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as the Department for Disarmament Affairs,part of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the General Assembly in July 1997.
Alyn (Alan) Ware is a New Zealand peace educator and campaigner in the areas of peace,non-violence,nuclear abolition,international law,women's rights,children's rights and the environment. He has served as the Global Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament since it was founded in 2002.
Maire Leadbeater,is a New Zealand human rights and peace activist,writer,and former social worker. Leadbeater played a leading role in the New Zealand branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and has also advocated on human rights issues relating to East Timor,the Philippines,and Indonesia. She also served as a councillor on the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council.
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons," according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee announcement on October 6,2017. The award announcement acknowledged the fact that "the world's nine nuclear-armed powers and their allies" neither signed nor supported the treaty-based prohibition known as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or nuclear ban treaty,yet in an interview Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen told reporters that the award was intended to give "encouragement to all players in the field" to disarm. The award was hailed by civil society as well as governmental and intergovernmental representatives who support the nuclear ban treaty,but drew criticism from those opposed. At the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony held in Oslo City Hall on December 10,2017,Setsuko Thurlow,an 85-year-old woman who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima,and ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn jointly received a medal and diploma of the award on behalf of ICAN and delivered the Nobel lecture.
Beatrice Fihn is a Swedish lawyer. She was the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) from 2014 to 1 February 2023.
The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) is a non-governmental organization founded in 2017 by a coalition of civil-society activists and disarmament practitioners,with the aim to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This proposal is in line with the 1970s proposal for a Middle East nuclear weapon free zone,albeit with broader scope following the 1990 Mubarak Initiative to include chemical and biological as well as nuclear weapons.
Sharon Dolev is a peace and human rights activist focusing on eliminating weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East. She does this through innovations in education,advocacy and activism to change public policies. She is the founder and director of the Israeli Disarmament Movement (IDM) and a co-founder and executive director of the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO). She also worked for a time with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN),which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
