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UN Day / Disarmament Week Organizing Kit
The next main event on the 2020 Vision
Campaign calendar, and the final one in 2005, is UN Day / Disarmament Week
(October 24-30). Our actions at this
time will reaffirm that nuclear disarmament is a central responsibility of the
international community, and we will reach out to a worldwide constituency
emphasizing that the United Nations is the venue of choice for addressing
global issues. The call to action in October is primarily in support of the Jumpstart
Disarmament Project, but also provides opportunities to develop other aspects
of the Campaign Plan for 2005-2006. (See Themes below.)
In this orientation kit:
Dates Purpose
Activities ‘Attitude’
Themes Outreach
Resources Contacts
Dates:
UN Day, 24 October 2005, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the opening of
first General Assembly session in 1945.
More information about UN Day
Disarmament Week, 24-30 October, initiated by the First UN General Assembly
Special Session on Disarmament in 1978.
More information about Disarmament Week
‘JUMPSTART’ your activities: September 24, World Peace Day
More
information about World Peace Day
Purpose:
The United Nations represents our best hope
that humankind will collectively tackle the great challenges facing us today,
above all the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and in particular nuclear
weapons.
Beginning in early October the First Committee of the UN General Assembly
will attempt to address the impasse at the NPT Review Conference (May 2005)
and the prolonged deadlock in the Conference on Disarmament (1998-2005). It is hoped that a group of nations will propose that the First Committee
step in and empower a subsidiary body to address nuclear disarmament in
all its aspects, including commencing talks on a program of action for
the achievement and maintenance of a nuclear-weapon-free world. This can be done in the First Committee by a majority vote ? unlike the
NPT or CD which are hamstrung by rules of procedure that require unanimity
or consensus on every decision. The subsidiary body
would operate under the same rules as the First Committee.
It is hoped that
the public interest displayed by the UN Day / Disarmament Week activities
outlined below will strengthen the political will of countries to act along
these lines in late October.
Activities:
Political:
The core event in each city during this
period should feature the mayor of that city speaking on behalf of his/her
fellow citizens for the commencement of nuclear disarmament talks. Ideally a public event would take place at
City Hall with the Mayor presiding, media attention, etc. There are, of course, many other forms the
Mayor’s involvement could take. Cities
in close proximity to each other might hold a joint event involving several
mayors and the public.
The core outcome of the activity should be a proclamation by the City Council or at least a message from citizens and the Mayor to the First Committee urging adoption of a resolution on commencing nuclear disarmament talks. These messages should be sent to the Chairman of the First Committee, the
President of the General Assembly, and the Secretary General of the United
Nations. Similar messages should be sent to the Head of Government and the Foreign
Minister of the city’s country. The city’s newspaper might also be willing to write an editorial or run
an op-ed piece.
More about activities, including
examples..
Ceremonial:
Fly the United Nations and 2020 Vision
flags!
Some cities already fly UN flags as a
matter of policy 365 days a year. Mayors
for Peace wishes to encourage this practice.
At a minimum, the UN flag should be flown on UN Day and, as a beginning
step, throughout Disarmament Week. The
position of the UN Flag relative to the national and city flags is up to each
city to decide according to its own traditions.
During Disarmament Week please also consider displaying the beautiful UN poster.
This poster declares your city's support for the UN and is excellent promotion
for Mayors for Peace as well. We wish to acknowlege the fine work of our
New York Representative Margo LaZaro, whose devotion to this project make
the poster a reality and got Mayors for Peace credited on it. Please encourage
your people to order and display this poster at home, at work, or at public
events. It is available free of charge (except for a nominal charge for
shipping and handling). Please send your request to Margo at: margolazaro@earthlink.net
‘Attitude:
We must see nuclear weapons for what they
are: a hold-over from a by-gone era. In
the world we live in today, they only do a disservice to the global security we
all need. Only a terrorist would want to
use a nuclear bomb. The idea of using
nuclear weapons to attack terrorists in underground bunkers is simply
ludicrous. As the U.S. Conference of
Mayors declared, “Weapons of mass destruction have no place in a civilized
world.” During UN Day / Disarmament Week, citizens will have a chance to inform
themselves about the nuclear dangers, learn about proposals for eliminating
nuclear weapons, and take action to start the process going toward a nuclear-weapon-free
world.
Themes:
“Jumpstart Disarmament!”
While the dangers of nuclear arsenals on hair-trigger alert, possible loose
nukes, and tons of poorly accounted for stocks of weapon-grade fissile
materials must be given urgent attention, a process for mapping the road
all the way to a nuclear-weapon-free world must also begin without any
further delay. The four
basic requirements for getting the job done are a proper mandate and authority; proper time and resources; proper auspices
and procedure; and proper participation. There is a decent prospect that headway will
be made on several of these requirements in the First Committee in October, and
a genuine process will be underway. Such
a process will give us a good point of reference for further efforts to satisfy
all the basic requirements. The task of
getting reluctant states to play a more constructive role will be greatly
facilitated by the existence of an ongoing process under UN auspices. It will allow the debate on nuclear weapons
to be framed in terms of whether or not citizens want their governments to be
working with other governments to eliminate this most-terrible weapon of mass
destruction. This is a debate we can
win!
More on the “Jumpstart” project plans.
“Ask the People!” (secondary)
International UN Day (October 24), the
first day of Disarmament Week, will be used to announce, in New York and Hiroshima, an
international round of national opinion polls.
In the past, polls have consistently found that large majorities favor universal prohibition
of nuclear weapons. From October 2005 to June 2006, Mayors for Peace will be encouraging the
use of a common set of questions by pollsters in about 50 key countries. We believe that the collective results will
be stunning, and will show that only a tiny minority desire to retain or
acquire nuclear weapons. Never again
will a public leader be able to claim to speak for his/her people when refusing
to engage in international efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. And those who provide leadership for nuclear
disarmament can be confident they speak on behalf of the vast majority both in
their country and internationally.
More on the “Ask the People!” project
plans.
Local themes:
The international themes provide a
necessary global dimension to our campaign activities. But, local themes are often what are foremost
on the minds of citizens and mayors.
Mayors for Peace encourages event organizers to incorporate local themes
in the UN Day / Disarmament Week activities.
This should be done in close cooperation with all concerned groups (see
out-reach). Examples.
Outreach:
All activities should be seen as an
opportunity for outreach to constituencies that do not necessarily see nuclear
disarmament as an area of immediate concern.
This is especially true of international campaign activities such as the
UN Day / Disarmament Week. In this case,
four obvious constituencies that should be encouraged to plan or participate in
events. They can all bring knowledge and
volunteers to event planning, and may take initiative to organize an event of
their own.
UNAs
and other UN related groups
In most countries there is a United Nations Association. There are also
youth groups that simulate UN General Assembly debates. The nature and quality of these groups, of
course, varies from country to country, and even within a country from one
local chapter to another. In most cases
it will be worthwhile reaching out to these groups.
University Political Science and International Relations Department
Most universities conduct courses on
international relations and international institutions which prominently
feature the United Nations. Courses
could be tailored to study the General Assembly in the period leading up to UN
Day, with ‘field trips’ taking place on that day and during Disarmament Week.
Foreign
Affairs Societies
Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
is a regular news item these days. Most
foreign affairs societies would find it perfectly natural to hold a meeting on
this issue and might be willing to time a meeting to coincide with Disarmament
Week. They would, most likely, be
honored to take part in an event at City Hall.
Parliamentarians
National legislators have an oversight
function in international affairs. The 2020 Vision Campaign aims to build strong working relations between
mayors and members of parliaments as a means of holding governments more
accountable to the will of the citizens.
Parliamentarians should be invited to participate in the UN Day /
Disarmament Week activities. (This outreach can be seen as a step toward deeper cooperation in July-August
2006 when events will center around the 1996 World Court advisory opinion
and international law.)
More on outreach.
Resources:
Mayors for Peace will be providing updates on
developments in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, including
electronic versions of all relevant resolutions that are submitted. There will also be a final report on the results of the First Committee
and implications for the 2020 Vision Campaign in 2006.
In addition, the best source of information regarding the First Commitee
is www.reachingcriticalwill.org. Please visit that site for daily First
Committee reporting.
Contacts:
For questions about the Jumpstart
Disarmament and the Ask the People
Projects, please be in touch with the 2020 Vision Campaign Manager, Aaron
Tovish: 41 22 340 3853 aaron.tovish@ ipb.org
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