The ongoing global effort for nuclear disarmament

The following is a report provided by Mary Yelenick about the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW MSP2), held at the UN in New York, November 27-December 1, 2023. The TPNW entered into force on January 22, 2021, after Honduras became the 50th UN member state to ratify the treaty.

By Mary Yelenick
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Pax Christi International UN-NGO Representative

I attended the TPNW MSP2 at UN headquarters in New York as a Member of the Pax Christi International (PCI) UN-NGO Team and the Pax Christi International Nuclear-Abolition Working Group.

During the week-long session, I periodically shared with the PCI Working Group, via emails, articles that I found particularly helpful. Good overview articles include the following: 

• Second meeting of states parties denounces nuclear deterrence
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons/Reaching Critical Will
• Nuclear Ban Daily/Reaching Critical Will
• Revised draft declaration of the second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: “Our commitment to upholding the prohibition of nuclear weapons and averting their catastrophic consequences”   

I will not seek here to repeat the findings or conclusions of those helpful reports. Instead, I offer here a few personal reflections, in an effort to convey a sense of the gathering.  

There are presently 69 States Parties to the TPNW, with 93 signatories. (Use this link to read more.) In addition to the many Member States present, representatives of some of the countries that have expressed reservations about the TPNW also attended the proceedings, as Observers. (See Observers of the 2023 TPNW meeting: Why should we care?).  

While the United States is not a Party to the TPNW, one member of the U.S. Congress did attend the MSP2: Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts (thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of Nuclear Ban.US). 

While I was not present for all statements delivered to the assembly, I did witness one particularly galling presentation by a European nuclear-host nation, which disparaged the TPNW as not being worthy of attention given the existence of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Happily, the next speaker – the  representative from Equatorial Guinea – issued a forceful rebuttal, chastising and ridiculing the other nation for speaking at a globally-critical event simply in an effort to undermine it. 

A welcome addition to the MSP2 was U.S. Catholic Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, author of the powerful 2022 pastoral letter calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons (“Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace“). Archbishop Wester also celebrated a Mass in New York, delivering a powerful nuclear-abolition homily. (Watch the video of his homily here.) He later delivered a powerful statement to the nations assembled, on behalf of the Dioceses of Santa Fe, Seattle, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima (use this link to read the statement), and attended several civil-society side events. Archbishop Wester is well aware of the work by Pax Christi International on the issue of nuclear abolition, and requested that I relay to all members of the PCI Nuclear Abolition Working Group how grateful he is for that work.

There were far too many side events hosted by civil society each day to permit participation in all of them. The sheer number of such events – and the resultant fracturing of participants’ ability to spend much time with each other – rendered our time together less productive than might have otherwise been the case. Friends and colleagues who had been privileged to spend substantial time together during TPNW negotiations in 2017 found ourselves this year too often simply waving to each other across a crowded corridor, between events, rather than having time to conduct longer conversations. Of course, whereas in 2017 we spent many months together, this time we were together for only a few days.

Many of the side events focused on recent scientific scholarship, and new or updated advocacy tools. Use this link to access one excellent advocacy tool, the new edition of “Warheads to Windmills” from NuclearBan.US.

Going forward, MSP2 attendees agreed, critical issues requiring focus and public attention include:

• new scientific findings on the horrific immediate and long-term effects of nuclear radiation, which demonstrate the even-more devastating risk being posed to the survival of all life on the planet by nuclear weapons, and
• the vital importance of listening closely to and disseminating the voices and stories of indigenous people who have suffered the most from nuclear testing and bombing, including the Hibakusha (several of whom were in attendance), Pacific Islanders, and others whose voices and firsthand experiences have been long marginalized or ignored.

In preparation for the next MSP – which will take place in New York March 3-7, 2025 – proponents of the TPNW will be focusing explicitly on effectively countering the traditional “deterrence” rationale proffered by nations that possess or rely upon nuclear weapons — i.e., that the possession of nuclear weapons deters others from attacking them, thus rendering them safer. One well-attended side event featured Ward Wilson, author of “Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons,” who challenges head-on the “deterrence” argument and also suggests ways of countering other arguments (including the “silly” argument that humankind “cannot uninvent” nuclear weapons, and is thereby doomed to maintain them) advanced by nuclear-weapons proponents.

Finally: One of my friends at the MSP2 had traveled from an African country to attend the proceedings. That person’s nation has not yet signed the Treaty, notwithstanding significant efforts directed its way over the past several years by ICAN members in Europe and the U.S. 
My friend – accompanied by two members (all young people) of that same country – had simply walked, during the MSP2, to their country’s UN Mission in New York, and knocked on the door, explaining that they wanted to speak with their ambassador about their country signing the TPNW. While initially rebuffed, they were persistent – and were eventually welcomed into the Mission, where they proceeded to enjoy an uninterrupted three-hour meeting with their ambassador. At the conclusion of that conversation, the ambassador told them that it was important that their country decide for itself – through discussions among its citizens – and NOT simply in response to pressure applied by representatives of outside organizations or countries – whether to sign the TPNW. The ambassador promised that in light of the fruitful conversation with the three young MSP2 attendees from his country, the issue would be placed on the national agenda.

While this story reinforces the need to be humble in our approach to this work, it is also a reminder of the remarkably broad range of access and resources that Pax Christi International, with active members all around the world, has in working for nuclear abolition.