No Images? Click here Canada out of step on nuclear disarmament. November 2017 Issue No. 63Quotation of the month
Canada and the UN nuclear ban treatyAt a press conference in Toronto a few weeks ago, members of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)--this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner--urged Canada to join the UN nuclear ban treaty. On 27 October, Setsuko Thurlow (Hiroshima survivor), Ray Acheson (Reaching Critical Will), and Cesar Jaramillo (Project Ploughshares) jointly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of ICAN, speaking to the Canadian press about the treaty’s value as a catalyst for much-needed progress toward nuclear disarmament. Adopted in the heat of July, the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons outlines a categorical prohibition on the development, production, manufacture, acquisition, possession, or stockpiling of nuclear weapons or any other nuclear explosive devices. As the shadow of nuclear conflict looms ever-larger in our current political reality, the treaty fills a huge gap in international law. Read more about the treaty on our Ottawa Office blog, and check out Project Ploughshares' analysis on Canada's position. On the HillOn November 2, Cesar Jaramillo of MCC partner organization Project Ploughshares testified to the House of Commons Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Bill C-47, An Act to amend the Export and Import Permits Act and the Criminal Code. If this bill passes into law, Canada would finally accede to the international Arms Trade Treaty. Jaramillo insists that the bill has “a loophole you could drive a tank through.” Entitled “Bill C-47: If left unchanged, Canada will not meet ATT obligations,” Ploughshares' testimony highlighted profound concerns with the draft legislation, including that exports to the U.S.--which total more than half of Canada's total annual military exports--will continue to be exempted from licensing and reporting requirements. Listen to Ploughshares’ testimony (at 12:14:42). In other Hill news, on November 1, after many consultations and civil society and parliamentary input, the Canadian government launched its second Canadian National Action Plan (C-NAP) on implementing the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. This is in response to UN Security Council Resolution 1325, passed in 2000, and the subsequent resolutions. The key objective for MCC and others within civil society--one where we will be watching closely for results--calls for the [I]ncrease of meaningful participation of women, women’s organizations and networks in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and post-conflict statebuilding.
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