Engaging parliamentarians in the process to achieve a Middle East Zone free from Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction Alyn Ware Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament www.pnnd.org
Jan 07, 2016
Engaging parliamentarians in the process to achieve a Middle
East Zone free from Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of
Mass Destruction
Alyn Ware
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament
www.pnnd.org
Vital role of parliamentarians
• Elected representatives of civil society
• Help shape government policy
• Parliaments as a public arena
More freedom than governments
• Don’t have to always focus on entrenched government positions
• Able to put forward ‘smart’ approaches to provide possibility of success
Varied arenas of action
• Nationally – encourage good faith participation by their government
• Regionally – demonstrate possibility of agreement between Middle East actors
• Internationally – demonstrate global concern, importance of the issue and strength of global support
Regional and Global
• Middle East Zone as a diplomatic approach to preventing proliferation – a viable alternative to the use of force or to accepting proliferation
Actions - National
• Questions
• Debates
• Resolutions
• Statements – party, individual
Actions – Regional and International
• Resolutions– Parliamentary Assembly for the
Mediterranean– Inter Parliamentary Union– OSCE PA, NATO PA
• Civil society meetings• Intergovernmental meetings
– NPT, UN General Assembly
• Joint statement
Joint Parliamentary Statement for a Middle East Zone Free from Nuclear Weapons and all other Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Drafted after consultations with parliamentarians and disarmament experts from Israel, Egypt, Iran and globally;
• Based on UN General Assembly resolution and IPU 2009 resolution
• Released at the PNND Assembly in Bern, Oct 2011• Available in – Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew,
Japanese, Greek, Spanish• Opportunities to present at NPT, UN General Assembly
etc…
www.pnnd.org