Legislators’ actions for nuclear risk reduction and disarmament

Legislators (parliamentarians and mayors) play essential roles in advancing effective nuclear risk-reduction, non-proliferation and disarmament policy.

Parliamentarians enact legislation, approve budgets and mobilize resources, provide oversight to ensure government accountability and transparency and ensure national implementation of disarmament commitments. As elected representatives, both mayors and parliamentarians provide a bridge between civil society and government, and have similar roles to protect the security of citizens living within their jurisdictions and to also protect their localiries for future generations.

This event will highlight key actions/initiatives of legislators relevant to the NPT Review Conference and to Securing our Common Future, the UN Secretary General’s Disarmament Agenda. We will discus the challenges (or support) these actions provide to government policy and action, and the importance of cooperation between civil society and their elected representatives in advancing such initiatives.

There will be examples of actions of parliamentarians and mayors relating to nuclear-weapon-free zones (existing and proposed), nuclear weapons budgets & divestment, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Gender/Peace & Security, dealerting and no-first-use, diplomacy & nuclear-related conflicts and more.

Chairs:

• Alyn Ware (New Zealand/Czech Republic). Director, Basel Peace Office. Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND);
• Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic). Co-convenor, Youth Fusion.

Speakers:

• Senator Edward Markey (United States), Co-Chair, US Congress Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group (by video message);
• Saber Chowdhury MP (Bangladesh). Honorary President, Inter-Parliamentary Union. PNND Co-President;
• Jackie Cabasso (USA). North American coordinator of Mayors for Peace;
• Bill Kidd MSP (Scotland). Convenor, Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Nuclear Disarmament; PNND Co-President;
• Michaela Sørensen (Mozambique/Denmark). Coordinator of the PNND Gender, Peace and Security program.

Cosponsors: Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, World Future Council and Youth Fusion

Contact: For more information please visit www.pnnd.org or contact info@pnnd.org

Background resource: Assuring our Common Future: A guide to parliamentary action in support of disarmament for security and sustainable development