Nuclear Weapons and their Consequences: The Relevance of International Humanitarian Law
Catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and the relevance of international humanitarian law were highlighted during the PrepCom meeting for the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT.
Noel Stott, Senior Research Fellow, Transnational Threats and International Crime
According
to the African Union (AU), the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their
delivery systems remains one of the greatest
threats to international peace and security. This was
reaffirmed during the recent preparatory committee (PrepCom) meeting for the
2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT), held from 30 April to 11 May 2012 in Vienna. At
the meeting the AU also reaffirmed Africa’s
continued commitment to realising the goals
and objectives of the NPT; to a world without nuclear weapons in which nuclear science and technology is [only]
harnessed for the development of humankind.
However, tensions
around Iran’s nuclear programme and the stance of North Korea still complicate
the debate between the nuclear weapon states and the non-nuclear weapon states
regarding the relative importance of the three pillars of the NPT, namely
disarmament, non-proliferation and the right to utilise nuclear material for
peaceful purposes. Most non-nuclear weapon states
noted at the meeting that the failure to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in
security doctrines, lack of progress on the operational status of warheads, on-going
modernisation of nuclear arsenals, and the continued placement of nuclear
weapons outside nuclear weapon states’ territories meant that disarmament
obligations were not fulfilled.
Importantly,
this meeting in Vienna also focused on the catastrophic humanitarian
consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and the relevance of international
humanitarian law.
This
follows recent resolutions by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) and its affiliated Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as well as the
Royal Norwegian Government’s recent announcement that in 2013 it will host a
major conference to examine in detail the humanitarian consequences of using
nuclear weapons.
The concept
was first officially recognised by NPT members in the 2010 final document as
an opportunity to address the disarmament and non-proliferation debate from a
new perspective. According to analysts, this conference will allow for a two-pronged
examination on the legal nature of nuclear weapons; firstly from the
perspective of humanitarian law as the law of armed conflict, and secondly from
the perspective of international human rights law, which is increasingly being
used as a complementarity to humanitarian law in areas affected by conflict.
Many states
expressed their deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of
any use of nuclear weapons, and highlighted that in case of use, such consequences
would be unavoidable and emergency relief could not be provided to affected
areas.
The Vienna Prepcom was the first of three sessions to
be held prior to the 2015 Review Conference. The NPT, which entered into force
in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995, requires that review conferences
be held every five years. The Treaty is regarded as the cornerstone of the
global nuclear non-proliferation regime. It was designed to prevent the spread
of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to further the goal of nuclear
disarmament and to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
