Security Council Open Debate on Nuclear Proliferation, Disarmament and Security, April 2012

On the 19th of April the Security Council convened to discuss Nuclear Proliferation, Disarmament and Security. Sadly no mention of gender was made with all speakers including the Secretary-General choosing to ignore the clear link between the proliferation of nuclear arms and material, heightened militarism and its negative effect on women's security.

The dominant themes of the debate were the importance of improving national capabilities to detect, stop and deter the trafficking of illegal weapons, and the need to enhance mechanisms ensuring the safeguard of nuclear weapons and materials. Stipulating that “financing proliferation is financing terrorism”, the Secretary-General called on member states to implement resolution 1540 which obligates states to “establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their acquisition by non-state actors”. Further, the SG emphasized the importance of state implementation of multilateral treaties “aimed at eliminating or preventing the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons”.

Other notable themes were the need for countries to cooperate with IAEA monitoring, to achieve consensus on the Conference on Disarmament and to begin talks towards bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force.

Finally, states were almost unanimous in their condemnation of the failed missile launch attempt carried out by the Democratic Republic of Korea on the 13th of April.

A full summary of the debate is available on Reaching Critical Will.org.