5-06-05, 8:51 am

From ICFTU

Brussels (ICFTU OnLine): The ICFTU has called for a major strengthening of international efforts to stop nuclear weapons proliferation and ensure nuclear disarmament at the United Nations Conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). An ICFTU statement to the Conference was issued at a special trade union seminar in New York, organised in conjunction with the Japanese trade union centre RENGO on 3 May.

The ICFTU is calling on the participants in the UN Review process to remove loopholes from the current provisions of the NPT and related international instruments, and to intensify efforts, through the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, to stop the development of new nuclear weapons and eliminate the estimated 33,000 nuclear warheads currently in existence.

Stressing the need for peace and security policies to be built around respect for human rights and sustainable and just economic development, and in light of growing concerns about development of nuclear arsenals by countries such as North Korea, the ICFTU is highlighting the need for effective multilateral action to ensure global peace and security. Governments must also take measures to ensure conversion of military to civilian technology and production, with particular emphasis on ensuring that any workers affected by such conversion are supported by effective transition measures.

Participants from the trade union movement and non-government organisations were joined in the 3 May seminar by ICFTU Assistant General Secretary Jose Miranda Oliveira and RENGO General Secretary Tadayoshi Kusano, along with Sunao Tsuboi, a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb, and Jonathon Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute. The ICFTU represents 145 million workers in 233 affiliated organisations in 154 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a partner in Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org