Project Ploughshares - Nuclear Disarmament

Project Ploughshares is a non-governmental organization that works with churches, governments and civil society, in Canada and abroad, to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence and build peace.

Progress toward the internationally mandated goal of prohibiting and eliminating all nuclear weapons depends on a durable foundation of political will and a reliable set of legal/technical/security mechanisms to assure compliance.
 
Project Ploughshares works with a broad range of national and international constituencies and partners aimed at deepening the global commitment to nuclear abolition, and encouraging the research and policy development needed to facilitate global and irreversible nuclear disarmament.

One area of particular attention has been the promotion of accountability through effective transparency and reporting provisions within the context of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Ploughshares’ 2010 report, Transparency and Accountability: NPT Reporting 2002-2009, was the basis of a special meeting of delegates and civil society representatives, hosted by the Canadian delegation, to review and explore improved compliance with reporting requirements.

The Final Document of the 2010 Review Conference placed new reporting obligations on Nuclear Weapon States, earlier reporting obligations regarding the Middle East have taken on extra importance – all of these will be part of the Ploughshares work on reporting in the next NPT review cycle.

Transparency and accountability provisions, along with broader legal, verification, and alternative security arrangements, will be central to effective movement toward the nuclear weapons convention, called for by the UN Secretary-General and acknowledged in the 2010 NPT Review Conference Final Document. Project Ploughshares is working with partners through research and public events to address these elements.

Project Ploughshares was also significantly engaged in the review of NATO’s Strategic Concept and will continue to be involved in the promised further review of NATO policy and strategy. Monitoring the continuing stalemate at the CD also calls for pursuit of alternative venues through which to undertake the four priority items there – nuclear disarmament talks (potentially linked to advancing discussion on a nuclear weapons convention or framework), negative security assurances, PAROS, and FMCT.

Prepared for The Simons Foundation by Nancy Regehr of Project Ploughshares, 2011.