Australia should vote ‘yes’ at UNGA #79

Two UNGA First Committee resolutions provide an opportunity for progress.

Ahead of the 79th UN General Assembly, we’ve written to Foreign Minster Penny Wong urging the Australian government to vote ‘yes’ on two key nuclear disarmament resolutions:

  1. Resolution on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons 
  2. Resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

We told Minister Wong:

Resolution on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons

Health and humanitarian organisations worldwide endorse the abolition of nuclear weapons based on the irrefutable evidence of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons tests and detonations.

Over the past decades, studies have repeatedly confirmed the profound humanitarian consequences of limited nuclear exchanges, nuclear detonations in populated areas, population displacement in the wake of nuclear detonation, collapse of health services and rapid, catastrophic disruption of the world’s climate.

Studies have also authoritatively concluded that the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons detonations surpass the capacity of any local, national, or international health or humanitarian response or coordination. The humanitarian consequences are not confined by space or time: they are transnational, affecting even noncombatant states, and transgenerational.

Organisations such as the World Health Organization, World Medical Association, International Council of Nurses, World Federation of Public Health Associations, and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War acknowledge the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.

In Australia, peak bodies such as the Australian Medical Association, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Australian College of Nursing, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Public Health Association of Australia recognise that nuclear weapons have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

A positive vote on the First Committee resolution acknowledging the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons is supported by a body of irrefutable evidence, and is consistent with the Australian Government’s stated commitment to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

Resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

We ask the Australian Government to vote ‘yes’ on the resolution on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The resolution welcomes the entry into force of the TPNW, congratulates its states parties and signatories, and encourages all states to constructively engage.

Ninety-four states have signed the TPNW and seventy-three states have become parties to the treaty. Australia’s neighbours and allies are amongst the parties and signatories, including eleven Pacific nations and seven ASEAN members.

A ‘yes’ vote signals Australia’s genuine interest in a strong and effective universal non-proliferation regime, and encourages other states to also engage with multilateral efforts to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons.

A ‘yes’ vote is an expression of constructive engagement with the Treaty, its objectives and mechanisms, and not a formal commitment to the process of accession.

Australian Labor has committed to sign and ratify the TPNW. A positive vote on this resolution in the First Committee is consistent with this pledge.

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