Click here to view a recording of the webinar. See below for text of the presentations from the panelists and for additional resources.
The recent entry into force of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons brought a welcome positive moment to a bleak disarmament landscape. But none of the nuclear armed states have joined the Treaty, and all are expanding or modernizing their nuclear arsenals. This webinar, hosted by UFPJ, provided an update on nuclear weapons policies and programs and an overview of relevant developments in international law. It also suggested the need to rethink familiar approaches to disarmament, and to shift the focus of disarmament advocacy from recognizing the effects of nuclear weapons to analyzing the causes of nuclear arms racing and of the risks of war among nuclear-armed countries – the same root causes driving many of our other most pressing crises.
This webinar featured three internationally recognized advocates for nuclear abolition.
Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California, since 1984. In 1995 she was a “founding mother” of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee. Since 2007 she has served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace. She is a National Co-convener of UFPJ. Jackie was the 2008 recipient of the International Peace Bureau’s Sean MacBride Peace Award. Presentation text part 1 part 2
John Burroughs, Senior Analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP). He has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. His articles and op-eds have appeared in publications including Fordham International Law Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Newsweek, and Newsday. Presentation Text
Andrew Lichterman, policy analyst and lawyer with the Oakland, California-based Western States Legal Foundation. He has represented peace and environmental activists in a variety of settings, and also taught at alternative law schools for many years. He is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee. Presentation text
Readings and other resources
75 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Quest for Nuclear Disarmament; Where Do Things Stand? – Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation to the Democratic 21st Century Club of Santa Clara County, CA, October 20, 2020. Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording here.
Nuclear Weapons under the Biden Presidency – Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Peace & Planet webinar: The International Disarmament Agenda: Civil Society Voices From 7 Key States, February 23, 2021. Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording here.
Building a Moral Fusion Movement – Resource paper by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, for New York State Bar Association International Law and Nuclear Weapons Conference, November 12, 2020. Read the paper here. Watch the video recording of her remarks here (starting at 1:50:10).
Remarks of John Burroughs, Conference on International Law and Nuclear Weapons 2020, New York State Bar Association, November 12, 2020
Building Blocks for Nuclear Ban Treaty: NPT & Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, John Burroughs, Inter Press Service, November 2, 2020
Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, January 2021
Contributors: Roger Clark, Ariana Smith, Peter Weiss, Daniel Rietiker, Bonnie Docherty, and Andrew Lichterman
U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Racing: Still Crazy After All These Years, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, Truthdig, March 16, 2018
“Nuclear Disarmament, Civil Society, and Democracy,” Andrew Lichterman, Disarmament Forum, 2010 No.4
Rethinking the Military-Industrial Complex, Western States Legal Foundation working paper 2018, by Andrew Lichterman.
Nuclear Weapons: Why Are They Still Here? August 6, 2021 Presentation by Andrew Lichterman.
