WNII is an electronic information service of INES,
the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility

Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail: < >
INES homepage: http://www.mindspring.com/~us016262/ines.html
INES International Office < >
INES Chair Prof. Armin Tenner < >

INES Congress 2000

''Challenges for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century''

Stockholm, 14-18 June 2000

http://www.ines2000.org

NOTE: The web pages have been updated with new design and more material.

 INES 2000 Conference Secretariat: mailto:

CONTENTS of WNII No. 24/1999

• NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• "Nuclear Weapons in Court" list
• Abolition 2000 Hague Declaration
• International Appeal Opposing US & French Explosive Nuclear Fusion Programs
• Nuclear Abolition Calendar
• Citizens' Nuclear Information Center

• CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
• UPDATE: United Youth Conference
• World Congress on Philosophy of Law & Social Philosophy
• International Conference on Biotechnology in the Global Economy
• INES WEB- AND EMAIL SERVICE

No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue.
NOTE: All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:  < >

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org

For the latest nuclear weapons abolition grassroots news, visit: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/

"Nuclear Weapons in Court" list

From: George Farebrother, Secretary, World Court Project UK

Dear Abolitionists
During the Hague Appeal for Peace we held a very rewarding workshop on peoples' experiences in Courts in various countries when they used international law as a defence when acting directly against nuclear weapons. As a result we decided to set up a restricted list server with the aim of bringing this experience together for the mutual benefit of everyone involved. Topics covered will include:

• specific arguments used by prosecutors, magistrates and judges and how these can be effectively countered.
• how international humanitarian law can be related to specific nuclear weapon systems.
• lawyers willing to be of service

When a topic has been discussed and agreed it will become part of an evolving Web Site.  Unless anyone can think of a better name the list server and site will be called "Nuclear Weapons in Court". Other suggestions are welcome.  Whether you are an activist, a lawyer, or acting in a supportive role, you might gain from, and be able contribute to, this venture. If so, please let me know by sending an email saying "Please put me on the "Nuclear Weapons in Court" list, with a little information about your involvement in these issues and your postal address. I will immediately mail you back with a more detailed account of the Hague Workshop.

Best Wishes

George Farebrother

mailto:

Abolition 2000 Hague Declaration

Call for the New Millennium

The Hague May 1999

For the past half century humanity has been under the threat of annihilation from nuclear weapons. The environment and people's lives and health have been destroyed or adversely affected by the development, testing and use of nuclear weapons. Peace movements around the world have struggled to rid the world of this danger. Under this pressure from informed and mobilised citizens, the nuclear weapons states have promised repeatedly that they will eventually eliminate nuclear weapons and even signed treaties to this effect.

Yet the nuclear weapon states have made no moves towards relinquishing their nuclear weapons. Instead they are continuing with deployment of nuclear weapons and their deterrence policies including an option of first-use of these weapons. They also continue to spend billions of dollars for research, testing, and development of new nuclear weapons.

The threat from these programs diminished at the end of the cold war, but has again increased dramatically as a result of deterioration of the Russian command and control system, the expansion of NATO, war in the Balkans and nuclear proliferation in Asia. It may increase further as the millennium bug affects nuclear weapons systems into the 21st Century.

Confronted by the failure of international diplomacy to rid the world of nuclear weapons, citizens' organizations at the Non Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference in 1995 released a statement calling on countries to implement their disarmament obligations under this treaty by commencing negotiations which would lead to the conclusion of a nuclear weapons abolition convention by the year 2000. Over 1400 organizations have so far endorsed this statement, and comprise the Abolition 2000 network.  This international movement has gained strength from the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1996 that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal and that there is an obligation to conclude negotiations on complete nuclear disarmament. The United Nations General Assembly and the European Parliament have both adopted resolutions calling for the implementation of the ICJ's decision through negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention. Public opinion polls show over 80% support for a nuclear weapons convention in most NATO countries and nuclear weapon states, including the United States and United Kingdom. A Model Nuclear Weapons Convention, demonstrating the feasibility of nuclear abolition, has now been circulated by the United Nations.

In May 1999, 8000 people joined together in the Hague to launch the Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP), a new agenda for peace and justice for the new century. Abolition 2000, which held its annual meeting at the 1999 HAP Conference, makes an urgent call for all people to act to reduce and eliminate the nuclear threat by:

• Calling on your government to support the United Nations resolution calling for a nuclear weapons convention
• Urging the nuclear weapons states to immediately take all nuclear forces off alert and initiate negotiations leading to a nuclear weapons convention
• Participating in Global Abolition Days Mar 1-8, 2000, an international week of actions, education and lobbying for nuclear disarmament
• Participating in other disarmament days (a full list is available from Abolition 2000)
• Calling on states members of the Non Proliferation Treaty to implement their disarmament obligations by agreeing at the 2000 NPT Review Conference to commence negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention
• Urging civic authorities to adopt resolutions supporting a nuclear weapons convention
• Urging other organizations to sign the Abolition 2000 statement building our network to number 2000 endorsers by the turn of the century.

The dawn of the new millennium should be the time to take bold steps toward achieving a nuclear weapons free world. We urge everyone to help us do this.

For more information contact  Abolition 2000, http://www.abolition2000.org

International Appeal Opposing US & French Explosive Nuclear Fusion Programs

NOTE: Also available in French [ mailto:   ]

We, the undersigned, state that:

France and the United States both have programs to develop high energy lasers to achieve explosive nuclear fusion, the National Ignition Facility (US) and Megajoule (France).

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is currently under construction in the US, and Megajoule's funding will be approved by the French parliament in the fall of 1999.

The goals of NIF and Megajoule include achieving laboratory thermonuclear explosions and maintaining the two nations' respective nuclear weapons capabilities.

Both France and the US have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

NIF and Megajoule clearly violate the CTBT that commits the US and France "not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion."  Further, these programs are proliferation provocative by encouraging other nations to carry out similar activities.

Additionally, since the achievement of a CTBT was an explicit decision made in the context of the 1995 extension of the NPT, any activities which violate the CTBT should also be seen as violating the commitments made under the NPT.

THEREFORE, we urge the United States and France to respect their commitments to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by discontinuing the National Ignition Facility and Megajoule, and immediately declaring a moratorium on all such programs.

Please return completed appeals to:

• In the US:
• Sally Light, Tri-Valley CAREs, 2582 Old First Street, Livermore, CA 94550, USA; Tel.:
• Hisham Zerriffi, I.E.E.R., 6935 Laurel Ave., #204, Takoma Park, MD 20912, USA; Tel.:
• In France:
• Dominique Lalanne, Accelerateur Lineaire, 91405 Orsay, France Tel.: 33 1 64 46 84 28

Nuclear Abolition Calendar
(Provided by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation)

• March 1-8 - Global Abolition Days
  (Week of public actions and lobbying for nuclear abolition, upholding articles 1, 2 and 6 of NPT)
• March 1 - Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific Day
  (U.S. detonates 17 megaton hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll, 1954)
• March 5 - NPT Day
  (NPT enters into forces, 1970)
• April 22 - Earth Day
• April 26 - Chernobyl Day
  (Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, 1986)
• May 11 and 28 - Proliferation Days
  (India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests, 1998)
• June 1 - Sunflower Celebration Day
  (U.S. Russian and Ukrainian defense ministers plant sunflowers to celebrate Ukraine becoming nuclear weapons free)
• July 8 - World Court Opinion Day
  (World Court rules nuclear weapons generally illegal and there exists an obligation for complete nuclear disarmament)
• July 16 - Trinity Day
  (First nuclear weapon test, 1945)
• August 6 - Hiroshima Day
• August 9 - Nagasaki Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day
• October 1 - Nuremberg Day
  (Leaders held to account for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, 1946)
• October 24 - Disarmament Week
  (this week begins on the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations)
• December 1 - Prisoners of Conscience Day
• December 10 - Human Rights Day

Citizens' Nuclear Information Center

Jinzaburo Takagi <   > would like to inform INES that the URL of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (Tokyo) has been slightly changed to: http://www.jca.apc.org/cnic/

CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS

Events listed here are being published only once due to limited space.
Changes, however, will be taken into account (marked with ''UPDATE'')

UPDATE: United Youth Conference

• Date: 20-26 July 1999
• Change of Venue: Sedona, Arizona, USA

Theme: Developing an integrative strategy for unifying the youth movement and giving young people an effective international voice

For more details, mailto:          http://www.oneday.org

World Congress on Philosophy of Law & Social Philosophy

• Date: 24-30 June 1999
• Venue: New York (Pace University's World Trade Institute in the World Trade Center)
• Topic: The Transformation of Legal Systems and Economies in an Age of Global Interdependence
• Speakers include: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Pace University; Joseph Raz, Oxford University; Hon. Charles Rangel, U.S. Congress.
• Working groups and plenary sessions will deal with minority, women's and human rights, moral norms, law and the environment, democratic systems, medical science, artificial intelligence, computer ethics, etc.

For more details, goto: http://www.law.pace.edu/IVR

International Conference on Biotechnology in the Global Economy

• Date: 2-3 September 1999
• Venue: Center for International Development at Harvard University
• Organized by the Center for International Development and the Elfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University

The conference will address the implications of biotechnology for:

• international trade
• intellectual property rights
• biodiversity prospecting
• developing countries
• human and environmental safety
• social values

For more details, mailto:

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