The meeting of the Biological Weapons Convention took place this month in Geneva. The number of countries now signed up to the BWC is 163.
Please visit www.bwpp.org for more information including daily reports and summaries.

Peace of Art – The full list of winners

Category: Visual Art – Painting

Highly Commended

BOBBIE HUME (Cramlington Community High School, Northumberland)
ALEXANDER GIBSON (Cramlington Community High School, Northumberland)
HOLLY ASHENDEN (Darrick Wood School, Bromley)
KELLY ANN JARVIS (Darrick Wood School, Bromley)

Runners-Up

EMMA SLYFIELD (Darrick Wood School, Bromley)
SARAH BUSHELL (Priestnall School, Stockport)

Winner!

LARISA DASHINTSEVA (Russia)

Category: Visual Art – Sculpture/Collage

Winner!

EMILIA JINKINSON (Lutterworth High School, Leicestershire)

Category: Visual Art – Photography

Winner!

ERICA DI NISO (USA)

Category: Visual Art – Film

Runner-Up

EMILY HOWARD – No Blood for Oil

Winner!

BORIS SAMOILENKO – War is not the Answer (Russia)

Category: Dance

Winners!

AMI CHEESMAN (Tolworth Girls’ School, Surrey)
MELISSA DOWNIE
SOPHIE TATTERSALL
EMILY WARE

Category: Written Word

Runner-Up

REBEKAH BOOTH – A Normal Day (Northgate High School, Norfolk)

Winner!

ISABEL OTTER-BARRY ROSS – Survival (Hereford Cathedral School)

Category: Music

Highly Commended

EVE FLORIDES &
KALLIOPI FLORIDES – Cause of You (Canon’s High School, Edgware)
NAZIA MAHMOOD – Let There Be Peace

Runner-Up

KAMYAR DELKHOSH-NAVAZ – War and Peace (Canons High School, Edgware)

Winners!

SARAH LAAROUS
MARZUQ WILLIAMS
CHILESHE KANGOMBE – Walk Away (Canons High School, Edgware)

Category: Communicating The Message

Highly Commended

GARY GORMANLY – Love, Joy, Peace, Hope

Joint Winners!

LARISA DASHINTSEVA (Russia)
SARAH LAAROUS
MARZUQ WILLIAMS
CHILESHE KANGOMBE – Walk Away

Sarkozy wants to re-launch nuclear disarmament
Le Figaro December 8 2008

Le Figaro was able to see the letter that the President wrote to the Secretary General of the UN, in the name of the EU, to outline a series of initiatives concerning nuclear weapons.

The great French efforts on nuclear disarmament date back to the Mitterrand years (the late adoption of the NPT in 1992.) In an unprecedented initiative, it is as a representative of the EU that Mr Sarkozy proposes a series of measures to Secretary Bank Ki Moon on a letter that will be made public today.

The proposal is the result of a consultation of the 27 [EU countries] since the beginning of the French presidency of the EU.  The proposals still have to be validated by the General Affairs Council of the EU in Brussels today, before they can be endorsed by the European Summit at the end of this week. Regarding disarmament, especially the nuclear kind, “Europe has already done a lot” states Sarkozy in his letter “Conscious that her security also benefits by pursuing Global disarmament efforts, Europe is ready to do more.”

The letter outlines 7 “concrete and realistic” initiatives, some of which the President had already mentioned in a speech he gave last June in Cherbourg and also in one last September at the UN General Assembly. But at this particular timing-at such an important moment for the EU–their resonance is deeper.  The date is not insignificant: In the peak of the French Presidency of the EU and while Barack Obama–also overtly eager to advance in the area of nuclear disarmament–is about to take over the White House.  All of this makes this a particularly well chose moment.

A series of “bad students”

An important event is about to take place, in 2010, there will be a review of the NPT. Paris is hoping this will mark a re-launch of nuclear disarmament talks, which have been slow since international negotiations in the 80s. There’s much mention of “bad students”: China, India, Pakistan, Syria, and North Korea.  Also on the agenda are the United States and Russia, who account for over 90% of the nuclear weapons in the world. In this perspective, “The objective is to give the issue prominence at the level of world leaders” say people in the administration. “It’s not about un-inventing the nuclear bomb or relinquishing any form of dissuasion, but about making pragmatic propositions so that we can create an environment of trust and transparency,” the source added.

Measures of Transparency

Among the proposals one can find the universal ratification of the CTBT (1996) which was signed but not ratified by countries like India, China, and the US–an initiative pushed back by Congress but to which Barack Obama has been favorable.  This ratification should come with “dismantling, as soon as possible, of all nuclear installations, in an open and transparent fashion.”

Another proposal involves a moratorium on the production of fissile material and fuels still produced by China (at the Diwopu site) India, and Pakistan. The Europeans also prescribe that “nuclear power must put forth measures that show trust and transparency” as well as undertaking more “post-Start” negotiations between Russia and the US in order to reduce arsenals.  These negotiations have not gone very far in a long while and there are new tensions between the US-Russia. Also, recently Europe, with Sarkozy as an emissary, has issued a call to these two important partners so that they start discussing disarmament again.

Alain Barulet, La Figaro

December 8 2008

Last update: 11:20 a.m. EST Dec. 12, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec 12, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ —

Nuclear as Well Non-Nuclear Countries Support Plan For Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 21 nations from around the world finds that people in every country favor an international agreement for eliminating all nuclear weapons. Respondents were asked to consider an agreement that specified “all countries with nuclear weapons would be required to eliminate them according to a timetable” while “all other countries would be required not to develop them.” Respondents were also told all countries, including their own, “would be monitored to make sure they are following the agreement.”

In 20 of the 21 nations, large majorities, ranging from 62 to 93 percent, favor such an agreement. The only exception is Pakistan, where a plurality (46%) favors the plan while 41 percent are opposed.
On average across all countries, 76 percent favor such an agreement, with 50 percent favoring it strongly. Sixteen percent are opposed, with just 7 percent opposing strongly.
In the five nations with large nuclear arsenals and advanced delivery systems, large majorities favor the plan for totally eliminating nuclear weapons according to a timeline – the United States (77%), Russia (69%), China (83%), France (86%), and Great Britain (81%).

The idea of pursuing the elimination of nuclear weapons has gained increased visibility since a bipartisan group of four former US senior officials, George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn, published an influential article in 2007 titled “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons” endorsing the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.
“Publics around the world show a remarkably high level of consensus in favor of pursuing a step-by-step plan for reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons,” comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

The poll of 19,142 respondents across 21 nations was conducted between January 10 and August 29, 2008 by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a collaborative research project involving research centers from around the world and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. Margins of error range from +/- 2 to 4 percentage points. The study included all nations with nuclear weapons (except North Korea) and the following non-nuclear nations: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Palestinian Territories, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine.
For more information, visit: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/

SOURCE Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/

The UK has cut its stockpile of atomic weapons, but we need a new multilateral drive to avoid the risk of nuclear proliferation

David Miliband, The Guardian, Monday December 8 2008 18.00 GMT

The huge and complex challenges posed by the global economic crisis are producing a concerted, international response. Yet, at the same time, we cannot afford to lose sight of other pressing strategic challenges facing the world, including the question of nuclear weapons.

Read the full article on the The Guardian website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/08/nuclear-nuclearpower

Almost 700m tonnes of CO2 would be released into the Earth’s atmosphere by even the smallest nuclear conflict, according to a US study that compares the environmental costs of developing various power sources.

Guardian 2nd Jan 2009

To read the full article click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/jan/02/nuclear-war-emissions