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Australia, the UN, and nuclear weapons

By Moritz Kütt and John Langmore - posted Monday, 14 January 2008


The fourth resolution dealing with nuclear disarmament was L.8 “Follow-up to nuclear disarmament obligations agreed to at the 1995 and 2000 Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”, tabled by Iran and containing the same text as the resolution in 2005. It called upon all states to continue the disarmament progress within the NPT and to ratify the NPT, if they had not yet done so. In the FC this resolution was barely discussed and the delegations tried to complete the topic quickly, because they didn't want to agree with Iran or to recognise Iran as a “guardian” of the NPT. Fifty states including most of the NATO states opposed this resolution, 114 states supported it and there were 10 abstentions.

The Howard Government: neutral about nuclear weapons?

Australia's contribution to the debate about nuclear issues emphasised the importance of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the need to continue with the disarmament of nuclear weapons. However Australian votes and statements in the General Debate were only partly consistent with this statement.

The voting behaviour of Australia in this year’s UNGA session can be described as closely aligned with the US with Australia abstaining or voting against most of the resolutions. Often, there was only a minority of states voting with Australia. Of the 25 nuclear related resolutions, Australia supported only six.

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Australia contributed no initiatives on nuclear issues and co-sponsored only two, L.28 and L.30, on Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPAD) and a resolution relating to the ban of landmines. Those resolutions are important for the general disarmament, but do not make a contribution to the nuclear issues.

Under the Howard Government Australia lost its role as a country with innovative solutions for the problems caused by nuclear weapons. The election of the Rudd Government offers the opportunity for reversal of this trend, and instead to take leadership in the struggle for nuclear disarmament, which is essential for ensuring our survival.

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About the Authors

Moritz Kütt is an intern working with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

John Langmore, a former MP and Director at the UN, is now a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and National President of the UN Association of Australia.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Moritz Kütt
All articles by John Langmore

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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