Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 62, January - February 2002

News Review

Nobel Peace Prize Focuses Attention on Disarmament

In Oslo on December 10, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan received the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly awarded to himself and the United Nations. Referring to the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, Annan said that humanity had "entered the third millennium through a gate of fire", adding the UN's three overarching and interlocking priorities in the new century were "eradicating poverty, preventing conflict, and promoting democracy."

The ceremony marked the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes. More than thirty Peace laureates gathered in Oslo to mark the occasion and discuss prospects for preventing and abolishing war. On December 10, seventeen laureates, or representatives of laureate-winning organisations, issued a 'Centennial Appeal', committing themselves "to work for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and the reduction and control of small arms and other conventional weapons".

On December 6, a statement signed by 100 laureates, drawn from the full range of award categories, noted: "It is time to turn our backs on the unilateral search for security, in which we seek to shelter behind walls. Instead, we must persist in the quest for united action to counter both global warming and a weaponised world. These twin goals will constitute vital components of stability as we move toward the wider degree of social justice that alone gives hope of peace." The statement concluded:

"Some of the needed legal instruments are already at hand, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. As concerned citizens, we urge all governments to commit to these goals that constitute steps on the way to replacement of war by law. To survive in a world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all."

Note: in Stockholm on December 7, anti-nuclear campaigner Angie Zelter received the Right Livelihood Award on behalf of the Trident Ploughshares coalition engaging in civil disobedience to protest against the possession of nuclear weapons by the United Kingdom. The Right Livelihood Awards, established in 1980, are widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Peace Prize'. In her acceptance speech, Angie Zelter argued: "We are not ashamed but proud that our message can be understood by a five year old. This is our message - killing is wrong. Mass killing is wrong. Threatening mass destruction is a denial of our own humanity and is suicidal. When something is wrong we have to stop it. Non-violently, openly and accountably dismantling the machinery of destruction is thus a practical act of love that we can all join in."

Reports: Nobel peace laureates debate future of new century, Reuters, December 6; Our best point the way, The Globe and Mail, December 7; People's Disarmament, speech by Angie Zelter on behalf of Trident Ploughshares, December 7, website of Right Livelihood awards (http://www.rightlivelihood.se); Annan collects Nobel, stresses individual rights, Reuters, December 10; Nobel Peace Laureates Centennial Appeal, Oslo, December 10, 2001, website of the International Peace Bureau (http://www.ipb.org).