After multiple delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NPT Review Conference is finally taking place in August 2022 at the UNHQ in New York. Youth Fusion is participating with its own delegation, and a set of virtual and in-person events we are co-organizing with our partners.
Legislators’ actions for nuclear risk reduction and disarmament
August 8, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm EDT
Legislators (parliamentarians and mayors) play essential roles in advancing effective nuclear risk-reduction, non-proliferation and disarmament policy.
Parliamentarians enact legislation, approve budgets and mobilize resources, provide oversight to ensure government accountability and transparency and ensure national implementation of disarmament commitments. As elected representatives, both mayors and parliamentarians provide a bridge between civil society and government, and have similar roles to protect the security of citizens living within their jurisdictions and to also protect their localiries for future generations.
This event will highlight key actions/initiatives of legislators relevant to the NPT Review Conference and to Securing our Common Future, the UN Secretary General’s Disarmament Agenda. We will discus the challenges (or support) these actions provide to government policy and action, and the importance of cooperation between civil society and their elected representatives in advancing such initiatives.
There will be examples of actions of parliamentarians and mayors relating to nuclear-weapon-free zones (existing and proposed), nuclear weapons budgets & divestment, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Gender/Peace & Security, dealerting and no-first-use, diplomacy & nuclear-related conflicts and more.
Chairs:
- Alyn Ware (New Zealand/Czech Republic). Director, Basel Peace Office. Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND);
- Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic/Belgium). Core Team Organizer, Youth Fusion. Vice-Chair, PragueVision.
Speakers:
- Bill Kidd MSP (Scotland). Convenor, Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Nuclear Disarmament; PNND Co-President;
- Saber Chowdhury MP (Bangladesh). Honorary President, Inter-Parliamentary Union. PNND Co-President (tbc)
- Jackie Cabasso (USA). North American coordinator of Mayors for Peace;
- Michaela Sørensen (Mozambique/Denmark). Coordinator of the PNND Gender, Peace and Security program.
Cosponsors: Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, World Future Council, Youth Fusion
Contact: For more information please visit www.pnnd.org or contact info@pnnd.org.
Background resource: Assuring our Common Future: A guide to parliamentary action in support of disarmament for security and sustainable development
Advancing the Climate – Nuclear Disarmament Nexus through divestment, human rights and law
August 11, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm EDT
The Climate-Nuclear Disarmament Nexus highlights the connections between the climate crisis and the threat from nuclear weapons, advances policy solutions to address both issues including through divestment and international law, and builds cooperation between legislators, experts and civil society movements working on these two existential threats to humanity.
This session will include discussion on:
- Shifting nuclear weapons and fossil fuel budgets and investments to ESG (environment, social, governance) impact investment;
- Challenging nuclear weapons and climate policies in UN Human Rights bodies in follow-up to the Human Rigths Committee affirmation in 2018 that nuclear weapons and climate change violate the Right to Life;
- The initative to take climate change to the International Court of Justice;
- Other inter-generational dialogue and cooperation on the climate-nuclear disarmament nexus.
Chairs:
- Alyn Ware (New Zealand/Czech Republic). Director, Basel Peace Office. Co-founder, Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign;
- Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic/Belgium). Core Team Organizer, Youth Fusion. Vice-Chair, PragueVision.
Speakers:
- H.E. Mr Odo Tevi (Vanuatu). Vanuatu Special Envoy for Climate Change. Permanent Representative of Vanuatu to the UN;
- Ms Michaela Sørensen (Mozambique/Denmark), Youth Fusion Co-convener. Coordinator of the PNND Gender, Peace and Security program;
- Mr Solomon Yeo (Solomon Islands). Core Team member, World’s Youth for Climate Justice;
- Ms Kehkashan Basu (UAE/Canada). Founder-President of Green Hope Foundation. Member, World Future Council. United Nations Human Rights Champion. Winner of the First-Ever Voices Youth Gorbachev-Shultz Legacy Award for Nuclear Disarmament; (online)
Cosponsoring organizations:
The Permanent Mission of Vanuatu to the United Nations in New York, Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, World Future Council and Youth Fusion.
Youth Fusion goes IG-live!
August 12, noon ET
Join us for our first ever Instagram Live! To celebrate the International Youth Day, Michaela and Vanda will be tuning in from the UNHQ to talk about the NPT Review Conference experience, but also the role of young people in disarmament. Make sure to tune in, ask questions, or even go live with us!
Pizza and Nukes
August 12, 4-6pm ET
Still celebrating the International Youth Day, Youth Fusion is organizing an informal in-person get-together for all young disarmament advocates! We’ll meet in person at a venue outside of the UNHQ, sip on iced coffees (or teas! or sodas! :)), network and brainstorm together. Make sure to check this page regularly or follow Youth Fusion on our social media to not miss important details!
Gorbachev-Shultz Legacy Youth Award and Youth Fusion
August 16, 11am ET, UN Conference room B
A special event organized by Basel Peace Office, PNND and Youth Fusion, the 2022 winners of the Gorbachev/Shultz Legacy Youth Award.
Speakers:
- Monica Willard. United Nations Representative, Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.
- Jonathan Granoff, President, Global Security Institute. Board member, Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.
- Vanda Proskova. Vice-President PragueVision Institute for Sustainable Security. Core team member, Youth Fusion.
- Michaela Sorensen. PNND Gender, Peace and Security Program Director. Core team member, Youth Fusion.
This event also includes a video excerpt screening of an intriguing dialogue between George Shultz and Mikhael Gorbachev from the documentary The Bomb: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
