Statement by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Mr. President, distinguished delegates,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as a statement by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, comprising ICRC, IFRC and 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Mr. President,

The Japanese Red Cross Society witnessed first-hand the unimaginable suffering and devastation caused by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as medical and humanitarian personnel attempted, in near-impossible conditions, to assist the dying and injured. 

In August 1945, ICRC delegate Fritz Bilfinger reported from Hiroshima: “Visited Hiroshima 30th”, his telegram begins, “conditions appalling. City wiped out. Eighty percent [of] all hospitals destroyed or seriously damaged. Inspected two emergency hospitals, conditions beyond description.”

This experience had a profound impact on the entire International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, and has motivated our consistent call over the past 80 years for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. 

But more than 50 years after the entry into force of the NPT, we are alarmed and dismayed that the world seems to be walking backward and away from the goal of nuclear disarmament.

As many States Parties have noted, the risk of nuclear weapons being used is at its highest since the darkest moments of the Cold War. In the face of growing international and regional tensions, nuclear rhetoric has increased alarmingly, and explicit and implicit threats to use nuclear weapons have been made.

Nuclear deterrence theories, which rely on the threat of mass suffering and destruction, are regaining vigor. Despite commitments made at previous Review Conferences, the role of nuclear weapons in military doctrines and security policies is, far from diminishing, actually growing. The modernization of nuclear arsenals continues unabated.

Mr. President,

The Review Conference must address this grave situation with decisive action. The only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons are never used again is to prohibit and eliminate them. States Parties must implement their obligations under Article VI to achieve nuclear disarmament. 

We reiterate the call by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to all States that have not yet done so to promptly adhere to and faithfully implement the NPT as well as other mutually reinforcing instruments of international law that seek to achieve the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the regional treaties establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones. 

Pending the elimination of nuclear weapons, reducing the risk of their use is an urgent humanitarian imperative. Specific risk reduction measures are therefore urgently needed, and nuclear-weapon States bear the primary responsibility in this respect. 

But all other members of the international community also have a direct stake in ensuring that risk reduction measures are implemented, in order to protect their populations from threats to their security given the catastrophic, far-reaching and transboundary effects of any use of nuclear weapons.

A number of risk reduction measures are well known and have been proposed at successive Review Conferences. These measures would be effective and can and must be implemented urgently by the nuclear-weapon States and, as appropriate, their allies, not in spite of the current international security situation, but because of it.

Mr. President,

There is an additional approach to risk reduction that can be pursued in parallel, not just by nuclear-weapon States but by all NPT States parties, along with the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and civil society: This is risk reduction based on increasing disincentives for using nuclear weapons. 

This approach is outlined in a working paper by the ICRC and a joint appeal by 22 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to their governments. It involves three specific measures: 

First, consistently and visibly highlighting the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons;

Second, condemning and stigmatizing any threats to use nuclear weapons, and any other rhetoric that erodes the taboo against their use; and 

Third, ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) at all times.

We believe that this approach can positively contribute to preventing the use of nuclear weapons. We urge all States Parties to pursue these three measures, and we recommend that they be included in the outcome document of the Review Conference.

Mr. President,

I conclude by reiterating that nuclear risk reduction cannot become a substitute for the implementation of States Parties’ obligations to achieve nuclear disarmament. 

The Review Conference must agree on specific steps for the nuclear-weapon States to implement their unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

Thank you.