The Right to Life, the NPT, and Nuclear Arms Racing

Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy; Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Western States Legal Foundation; Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament; Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms

Civil Society Presentation to NPT PrepCom, United Nations, New York 1 May 2019

Delivered by Dr. John Burroughs
Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy

I will begin on a positive note. On 30 October 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee adopted a General Comment on the right to life set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Paragraph 66 of the comment begins: “The threat or use of weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, which are indiscriminate in effect and are of a nature to cause destruction of human life on a catastrophic scale[,] is incompatible with respect for the right to life and may amount to a crime under international law.” It also declares that states parties must respect their obligation “to pursue in good faith negotiations in order to achieve the aim of nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

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