May 3, 2008 Ground Floor Conference Room, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Office, 1 rue de Varembé Geneva, Switzerland

The following minutes are compiled from notes taken by Susi Snyder, Sandra Fongand with additional notes by Anthony Salloum

Attendance, in alphabetical order, by country:

John Hallam AustraliaPete Hāmmerle AustriaAaron Tovish Austria Pol Dhuyvetter BelgiumAnthony Salloum Canada Jaakko Ellisaari FinlandClaude Collombier FranceNathalie Gauchet FranceGerard Halie FranceDominique Lalanne FranceJean-Yvon Landrac France Bernadette Lucet France Jean-Marie Matagne FranceRichard Moleur France Avivor Pavlovsky FranceLouise Thomas France

Pierre Villard FranceAshley Woods FrancePeter Kolbe GermanyMerav Datan IsraelSharon Dolev IsraelTheodora Katchovsky IsarelPhilip White JapanRon McCoy MalaysiaAlyn Ware New ZealandSusi Snyder SwitzerlandGeorge Farebrother UKJohn Burroughs USA Jackie Cabasso USAJohn Loretz USANick Roth USARick Wayman USA

Abolition 2000 Annual General Meeting minutes…page 1 of 21

Susi chaired the first part of day, opening the meeting with introductions from participants - name, organization and country.

Key Decisions:

- There was a discussion about Abolition 2000 writing a letter to Greenpeace expressing our concern that they are no longer doing nuclear disarmament work at the international level, especially given the regional campaigns which are going on.

- Abolition 2000 website will link to nucleardilemma.org- All member groups of ABOLITION 2000 are encouraged to find out if their

mayor is in the Mayors for Peace network.- Abolition 2000 members are encouraged to let PNND know what initiatives are

happening in other parliaments. There are email updates that go out in several languages… this is a way that encourages parliamentarians to do things in other countries.

- Abolition 2000 website will link to the Hiroshima-Nagasaki protocol- Abolition 2000 will explore supporting IRENA and encouraging countries to

engage in negotiations with them this fall.- For the next NPT, Abolition 2000 should be engaged in side events on Uranium

mining, and that we set up something with some governmental official. Further, we could also link up to the carbon footprint issue. A decision was made to consult with Jim Green, and circulate his paper.

- Abolition 2000 participants agreed to form a working group in the network that would oppose GNEP. The group would share information and possibly do an open letter for GNEP countries. The group would also raise awareness and opposition to GNEP. Nick Roth will convene this working group, Philip, Jean-Yvon, Merav, and Anthony will join as well (in varying capacities).

- Abolition 2000 participants approved sending this greeting to the Article 9 conference in Japan:The 2008 Abolition 2000 AGM, meeting in Geneva, wholeheartedly supports the efforts to protect Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and the conference currently taking place. We also encourage other countries to adopt strong constitutional measures to reverse militarisation, using the positive Costa Rican example. We send a greeting of solidarity and support to all those gathered, and wish the conference the best of success.

- Abolition 2000 would like for everyone to write to their governments to vote in support of the de-alerting resolution proposed in 2007 by New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Chile, Nigeria. John Hallam will circulate a sample letter for member groups in NATO countries to write their own letters, not a sign-on letter. Those who do write to their governments will circulate letters also on the Abolition 2000 caucus list serves.

- Abolition 2000 has agreed to set up a small working group to monitor developments around the International Decade for Disarmament… Aaron Tovish will convene it and Susi Snyder will join it. John Burroughs has asked to

be kept abreast of the issues. - 2010 Action plan working group will be set up…tasked with developing a

proposal and report back within six months, for action decisions towards 2010. Members include: Peter Kolbe, Pol Dyhvyetter, John Hallam, Steve [Staples], George Farebrother, Pierre Villard, Jean- Marie Mantaigne, Jackie Cabasso, Anthony Salloum, and Sharon. Ashley Woods expressed an interest as well in being part of this group, and will be encouraged to become a member of Abolition 2000. The group will be convened by Anthony Salloum, as a starting place, but would like to shift off after six months.

- Abolition 2000 at this AGM, in Geneva, reaffirmed its support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) as a priority, and recognises that this includes several different approaches, including ICAN and the Hiroshima - Nagasaki protocol. We also recognise that at the completion of the 2010 review conference, if the NWC has not been achieved, we may consider new approaches.

- Global Council: There will be one final attempt to contact those who have not responded. This will be the responsibility of the Co-ordinating Committee. Irene Gale, Ian Prior and Jo valentine will no longer able to participate on the Global Council. Tamara Sundberg, Xavier Renou, Steven Starr, Sharon and Merav will be added to the Global Council. Global Council was affirmed.

- The 2008-2009 Abolition 2000 Co-ordinating Committee members are: Jackie Cabasso, Akira Kawasaki, Dominique Lalanne, Alice Slater, Alyn Ware, Steven Staples, Susi Snyder, and Pierre Villard. Richard Salvador cannot be on the CC anymore, and Dave Robinson will be asked….

- The Abolition 2000 AGM, meeting in Geneva, reaffirms its decision of the previous year that the Abolition Global Council list serve is only to be used for Global Council business and not for information sharing.

Detailed Minutes….

The agenda was then reviewed and approved.

Jackie gave a brief history of Abolition 2000….

Abolition 2000 was founded at the 1995 NPT in New York, when many NGOs came to monitor the 25 year Review and Extensions Conference  and were dissatisfied at the tone of the governments and a group of elite NGOs who did not press to implement the 1970 pledge of the NPT for good faith efforts for nuclear disarmament. About 65 NGOs drafted an Abolition Statement in the UN basement calling for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons, as part of an 11 point plan, to be completed by the year 2000. During the NPT Conference, these NGOs met in the  UN dining room and adopted the statement by consensus which, in addition to calling for the elimination by the year 2000, recognized the “inextricable link” between nuclear weapons and nuclear power and called for the establishment of an International Sustainable Energy Agency and the phase out of nuclear power..   

By the time the four week NPT Review Conference had adjourned, the Abolition Statement was faxed out all over the world and over 600 NGOs had signed on. In 1996, the Network supported a global effort to go to the International Court of Justice where we won a decision

that there exists an obligation to conclude negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects and strict and effective international control.”   A Nuclear Weapons Convention Working Group was established and a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention was drafted by lawyers, scientists and policymakers in the Abolition 2000 Network, which became an official UN document, submitted by Costa Rica in 1997.

That year the Network met in solidarity with the indigenous people of the Pacific, who had successfully organized a global boycott of French goods, to achieve an end to nuclear testing in the Pacific. The network adopted the Morua Declaration in solidarity with colonized and indigenous people of the world who bore the worst effects of nuclear testing. In 1999, when it became apparent that there would be no Nuclear Weapons Treaty negotiated by the year 2000, the Network established an enrollment campaign to enroll 2,000 organizations in our network, world wide, and maintain the name Abolition 2000 as a Network of over 2,000 organizations. 

During its existence, the Network established a Global Council of  nuclear abolition leaders and an International Coordinating Committee to work with the Network’s Secretariat, originally established at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, then at the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE), NY, NY and currently with the Rideau Institute, in Ontario , Canada, which succeeded the Polaris Institute where Steve Staples had assumed the responsibility of the Secretariat from GRACE.

 Anthony assumed the day-to-day responsibilities on behalf of Steve.

In 2003 the Global council issued a statement against the impending war in Iraq. During the 2005 meeting, Mayors for Peace and Abolition organized a rally in NY.  Over 40,000 people joined the march. The 2006 meeting was in Vancouver, Canada and last year the AGM was in Vienna. 

We are essentially a decentralized network, having a secretariat and with possibilities for greater cooperation that can be developed. It has never been the goal of the network for everyone to be doing exactly the same thing, rather we are people with similar visions and values working towards the same goal, while respecting different political perspectives. We have a small, coordinating committee to organize the AGM, and which meets regularly every six weeks throughout the year. We also have a website: www.abolition2000.org.

In 2005 we launched the Abolition Now Campaign which was supporting the Mayors for Peace Campaign.  In 2006, in Vancouver, there were two resolutions adopted, one was on nuclear negotiations and the second on nuclear free zones.

Alyn Ware thanked Anthony for his coordinating efforts.

Susi offered additional comments on the network. There was also a good discussion about the workings of Abolition 2000…

Susi Snyder noted that there is much activity in the network… there are working groups on specific issues and much has come out of the working groups that are in line with the founding statements of the network.  She commended the working groups for the work they have done noting that in terms of our overall process, it has been the way we have worked in the past.

It was also noted that it is difficult to attract financial resources, with Abolition 2000 running on little or nothing. Pierre had some questions on working groups: How does one join these groups? How is it possible to work together?  Between two general assemblies, he noted, he didn’t know exactly what and how the network functioned, or how to join working groups.

It was noted that we can’t formally work together as we wish and when we do establish working groups, we require someone who wants to be the convener – arrange calls, come up with materials, etc. Perhaps today some new working groups could emerge with clear indication of who wants the responsibility to convene them.

Participants appreciated the summary of the network’s history. It was noted that we need a written history of Abolition 2000.

Other points raised:

- There are regional Abolition 2000 networks, except in the US, although there is an Abolition 2000 USA email list.

- The only language adopted by the network is English due mainly to a resource problem.

- The Abolition 2000 statement is the founding statement so if you want to amend it, it would require consensus.

- The main asset of the organization is its list of contact members. - The network is organized by region, working groups and projects. - No one can speak for the network as a whole but component parts of the network

can issue statements and documents on the project as long as they are consistent with founding statement of the network.

- Abolition 2000 meetings operate on consensus and when there are difficulties, we use a modified consensus approach. If this does not work, there needs to be a 2/3 majority vote for a motion to pass. We have almost never had to go into the voting. 

- Everyone is welcome to participate in discussion but when it comes to a vote/consensus, only members groups are allowed to vote with one vote per organization.

Report from Secretariat: Anthony Salloum on Behalf of Steven Staples

“I am pleased to attend my second Abolition 2000 AGM and to bring greetings from Steven Staples. On behalf of Steve and the Rideau Institute, I wish to report the following:

2007 AGM…

- The Global Council Dinner was held on May 4, 2007 in concert with members of the IPB. There was a great turnout with approximately 25 members from each group attending.

- We also had a very good turnout for our 2007 AGM with 38 members in attendance.- Abolition 2000 also hosted a lunch for the youth delegates. We had almost 40 youth in

attendance.- Some of the key decisions made at the AGM included:- Elevating the issue around missiles and delivery systems

- Major endorsement of ICAN and call on members to take that up- Working group on US India deal with immediate plan to input fact sheet into the

PrepCom, 1 year plan for campaign- Participation with Global Article 9 Campaign on preparation of a workshop- More activity and participation in Nuclear Energy and Sustainable Development

Working Group with development of position on uranium and phase out of nuclear power

- Continuation of NWFZ initiative, which Atomic Mirror is leading- Continuing work with M4P- Developing Abolition 2000 Statement on Iran- Preparing a strategy for the 2010 Review Conference- Media Committee in advance of next NPT

Over the course of the day, you will evaluate how we fared on these objectives.

There was also a suggestion that representatives from English speaking groups contribute funds to get a mailing out to all participating organizations with updated information, announcement of those on the Coordinating Committee and Global Council, any reports people would like to include.

We will no doubt discuss the Global Council and our efforts to update the list.

Coordinating Committee….

Overall, the Coordinating Committee (CC) met regularly throughout the year. It would be helpful to hear from its members who are here today so that we may improve on how it works. We also agreed on the mandate of the Coordinating Committee:

The responsibilities of the A2000 CC members are to:

    a) provide oversight and guidance to the coordinator    b) plan the Annual General Meetings    c) write/edit/review all major mailings that go out under the name Abolition 2000    d) approve new members    e) make a good effort to participate in calls

The coordinating Committee also defined the role of the Secretariat….

- The Secretariat - in addition to other tasks such as scheduling CC meetings, arranging logistics for AGM, helping with releases and statements – is responsible for “input and oversight” of the A2000 website content.

For further details, please visit the 2007 AGM Minutes, they are on line.

List serves…

o We continue to participate and monitor the Abolition Caucus list serve with help from Norm Cohen. We are also active on the Global Council list.

o The Abolition Caucus list has 306 members who posted 676 messages in 2008. o The Global Council list has 77 members who have posted 161 messages in 2008.

Brochure…

I have brought an updated version of the Abolition 2000 brochure. I would like to propose an idea….if there are groups who wish to translate it into other languages, we can format it for you and post it to the website as a pdf, so that other groups may download it and print copies for their use.

Website…

We have done significant work on the website over the past year. I encourage folks to visit it frequently and to continue sending us material for postings. Some members now regularly send us material, and we appreciate that very much. We are also interested in posting materials in different languages, so don’t hesitate to send us information from your part of the world.

I hope you found the information of the AGM helpful….

The entire list of 2000+ member organizations of Abolition 2000 is online as well. However, you will note that there are no contact information for them. It is a massive endeavour to input all that information. However, one thing we can do is turn the names of the organizations into web links. So, I would encourage you to send me your web addresses, and we will, over time, post them.

New members….

The following groups have joined Abolition 2000 over the past year:

Mundo sin Guerras Humanist Party Netherlands Humanist Party GermanyEuropean Region of the Humanist InternationalSwiss Humanist Party IKV Pax Christi

Finances…

There remains approximately $8,000 in the Abolition account, not including costs for this meeting. We have extended our services from 2 to 3 years, and are prepared to carry on for another 2 years.

I have struggled to develop a fundraising proposal for Abolition 2000 for one key reason: Abolition 2000 is not an individual-member-based organization. It is a global network of 2000+ organizations with their own memberships and objectives. There is no strong, direct attachment to Abolition 2000 that could help any fundraising drive.

I would submit to you that each active member organization of Abolition 2000 could engage in local fundraising once a year for Abolition 2000, or alternately, donate a small portion of their fundraising revenue to Abolition 2000. The Secretariat works closely with you on a regular basis. We respond to your requests and initiatives, as such you know what we do on an annual basis. There is no need to set any specific amount, but if each member group were to send a

cheque to Rideau Institute once or twice a year and indicate its for Abolition 2000, we can keep account of those funds and indicate where the money was spent, at each AGM. I offer this as an idea for discussion and welcome your views.

The Rideau Institute remains dedicated to nuclear abolition, and we word hard in Canada alongside organizations such as the Canadian Pugwash group, Pugwash Peace Exchange, Simons Foundation, Physicians for Global Survival, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and the Middle Powers Initiative. Thank you.”

End of report.

Susi asked whether it was acceptable that the Rideau Institute continue as secretariat. Everyone agreed.

Jackie asked that organizations begin to think about whether they might want to take up secretariat responsibilities in 2010 or later. She also said that one key objective between now and 2010 is to really improve communication because the “2000” is a bit of stretch in terms of the accuracy. We need to reengage these organizations again. Anthony can start with the most active so he could have a sense of how far, ahead or behind we are…we need active organizations to help with this. With Mayors for Peace regular communication is critical.

It used to be that Abolition 2000 secretariat sent hardcopy mailings to members…. that is something the coordinating committee could consider. There was also a discussion about the need to enhance the website by adding French and possibly Spanish.

Anthony noted that the Rideau Institute we have a good webhost but that webhost does not have the capacity of creating mirror sites in different languages. They are currently trying to find one in Canada that would do that. Might have to create a separate page, which will be a bit different from the original. As he noted before, don’t hesitate to send Anthony any useful material in other languages….he will post it to abolition2000.org.

Planning for the future….

There is a need to do a fundraising campaign for Abolition 2000, but one of the challenges, is that it is not a member based organization which creates an attachment issue – identifying as member of regional group and not as an individual member of Abolition 2000…. We need to start planning for the long term sustainability of the network, including proposals for the 2010 conference. One suggestion offered by Anthony is that member organizations could contribute annually to the network, building resources for sustainability and actually drawing on that pool of money for significant activities in 2010 such as communication, media, brochures etc.

For its part, the Rideau has already been working with nuclear disarmament groups, pushing Canada to be more committed to issues. Anthony handed out some brochures.

One decision made at AGM last year, a task taken up by Felicity Hill, was to update the Global Council list. Felicity began the process by attempting to communicate with all listed Global Council members and had difficulties with some. Alice continued the process. Participants reviewed the list to help with the identification of those willing to stay on, and those wishing to be removed.

Participants also reviewed key issues to be discussed in the next section of the annual general meeting…..

Special guests…

Participants welcomed the Israeli delegation from Greenpeace, who provided an activity report from the Middle East.

Merav, Sharon and Theodora noted that the words; disarmament, or nuclear weapons are words that you don't hear in Israel. It’s kind of a taboo. You talk about nuclear issues, but only in relation to Iranian issues. They noted that two weeks earlier there was an article in one of the main websites talking about research that was done about the impacts or possible outcomes on a war between India and Pakistan that would include 100 small nuclear bombs. The outcomes included climate aspects.

In Israel people do a lot of “talk backs” where they comment on articles posted on news services. In this recent article, all talk backs, apart from one, were about Iran. Only one person noted Israeli nuclear weapons. No one thought about the fact that Israel possesses nuclear weapons.

They gave another example:

Sharon grew up in small town near the reactor in Dimona. Most of the engineers that work in Dimona live in her town. To the engineers, things like "did you have a good day at work today" was a forbidden question, it is just not spoken about.

Greenpeace started a campaign by starting with the impacts… the impacts of nuclear waste as a green issue, not a peace issue. This way people are beginning to get used to a vocabulary where “nuclear” and “Israel” have a bad connotation. Greenpeace approached several left-leaning green organizations. Sharon said, “when people think about something they tend to think that others are already at the same level”. People blushed at the topic of nuclear power in Israel. People knew that they should be able to talk about it but then found it very hard.

Greenpeace Israel used Chernobyl days to get the media and public attention. Sharon and friends heard that Israel wants to try to build a new nuclear power plant, and saw this as the best opportunity to campaign about nuclear power in a way that will engage Israelis.

The infrastructure ministry finally informed Greenpeace that they will not build in the next three years- likely because they can't get a deal like the US-India deal.

Recanting another story, Greenpeace told participants about finding that Tel Aviv University has a very prestigious conference every few months about security issues in the Middle East. All of these are funded by the military industry and computer companies that work with weapons and missiles. A particular conference had Israel’s President in attendance. Sharon recants;

“We assumed that they will have media presence built in, we looked at the programme, it was a full day, with all kinds of sessions and panels. We couldn't find even one woman in a panel at a conference dealing with the nuclear challenge in the middle east…no one thought that the challenge would be to disarm. It was not

considered a worthy challenge.

They did invite someone, an Arab member of parliament, which doesn't have any legitimacy in the Israeli parliament.

We did a five minute action that was broadcast all over the world…stripping our clothes to signify stripping the middle east of weapons of mass destruction.”

This was the first time that a discourse on Israel’s nuclear capabilities actually took place. Even feminist organisations in a column that they wrote a month earlier were supportive citing it as a positive example because there were men stripping as well…not just women. On a humorous note Arab states showed only the men stripping, while in the rest of the world focused only on the women.

Israelis are quite ignorant of this topic. One of the main questions asked on Greenpeace is: why do you want Israel to disarm from nuclear weapons first? The answer is that off course, Israel can't do it second.

Sharon went on to note that it is important to understand that Israelis have no idea that the countries surrounding Israel are armed with WMD. Israelis first learned of this during the first gulf war, but never really talked about it. People don't talk about the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons, but don’t acknowledge that we are surrounded by WMD’s. “We feel secure because we have the bomb. But we are not secure because we're surrounded by WMD’s,”…there are nukes in Turkey. The Arab states possess chemical and biological weapons and their delivery means.

People in Israel really believe that there is a kind of balance of terror because maybe Arabs have lots of conventional weapons but Israel has the bomb. Outside of Israel you can't hear it because there is no balance of terror.

On a final note, the team noted that Israelis are scared and live in a culture of fear. When you give birth in Israel and leave the hospital after three days, full of joy, you have to leave the hospital with signed certificates, and a chemical weapons kit for the newborn infant. “We have to make sure that we are not seen as someone who is going to harm Israeli security. This is why its important to show Israelis that the only solution is a WMD free zone.”

Questions followed….

Information about Vannunu? What kind of links do you develop with global peace movement?

A: Greenpeace does talk to other peace organisations however they are not ripe enough to take part in these activities. They also work with another organisation called regional peace movement, and we're able to push the Arab peace initiative that calls for an end to conflict in the Middle East. Peace Now will not do anything about disarmament.

The ex-Vannunu team, whom Greenpeace works with, includes three people who issue reports outside of Israel. Greenpeace is trying very hard to reach out to Israelis. In the last year there has been a small shift.

Volunteers in Greenpeace are an example…there were two at the outset that were willing to

do disarmament. In December, there were 20.

Vannunu had problems with the Israeli authorities. He is not supposed to talk to international media but he does. It gives Israeli authorities reasons to continually monitor him. Sharon believes Israel should just let him leave the country. In Israel he is perceived as a spy that put Israel under great dangers…the public sees Vannunu as someone who almost destroyed Israel. “We have the same lawyer as he does, can put you in touch! People won't support Vannunu until they come around to start thinking about disarmament.”

There was a discussion about Abolition 2000 writing a letter to Greenpeace expressing our concern that they are no longer doing nuclear disarmament work at the international level, especially given the regional campaigns which are going on.

Sharon also noted that by the end of 2008 Greenpeace Israel will be trying to hold a regional conference to discuss the possibilities of a road map to disarmament, with the Arab peace initiative. If participants want to be a part of the planning group please join in.

The Nuclear Dilemma Exhibition…by Ashley Woods

The project started three years ago – with Ashley meeting many participants in Vancouver. He noted that many individuals and organisations contributed to the success of this exhibition. This is the first showing of the exhibition, here, at the ICRC. It is a co-production between the new museum and Ashley.

Exhibition is due to tour Guernica (peace museum) around 15 September for 4 months. Then…Germany, prior to the German elections in September 2009. The exhibition is just one aspect of the whole project. There will also be parallel activities.

The nuclear dilemma website acts like a forum. Every month, there is a spotlight, sometimes featuring organisations. Parallel to that, there is an opinion box, to solicit a question of the month. It is an opportunity for the public to gain an understanding of public opinion on this issue, and to get to learn about other organisations involved in nuclear abolition.

There is also a substantive educational program. Ashley is working with Kathleen Sullivan to put on events where the exhibition is travelling. During the past week in Geneva, there were over 1,000 people coming into the exhibition. 5 workshops had been organized with the international school.

Ashley is also thinking about setting up a media suitcase - available free of charge to interested persons. There is a PowerPoint presentation available that can be circulated that includes images and he hopes that it can be used as long as the exhibition is circulating.

For more info, visit: http://www.nucleardilemma.org/?rub=infopress

Discussion on key issues

Two main questions were asked to set the tone for this discussion: - What is the issue? - What do you want from Abolition 2000?

On the International Court of Justice (ICJ)… there was a successful event on May 1.

Abolition 2000 folks were there. The idea is to return to the ICJ to extract from the court a clearer definition of “good faith.”

John Burroughs noted that there will be a publication that includes an address by the former president of the ICJ. There was also a breakout session on strategies for the return of the ICJ on Sunday, May 4.

On the US-India deal…folks felt that the issue would be over by now, not necessarily because of small left wing groups in India, but rather that if the deal was not accepted by the IAEA and NSG by July, it would be difficult to get final agreement by the Bush Administration.

The agreement between Bush and Singh would be in very serious danger around that time.The next key date is the US Presidential election. When the US government changes, it would be interesting to know what the new administration’s position will be.

Other key dates in this issue: 2010 - one of the strands of the campaign is to call on members of the NPT to address this in the context of the 2010 RevCon, so we'd like to drag it out by then.

Although it started off as a US-India deal, in recent months, Russia and India have signed agreements. France has been busy wanting to sign agreements as well.

In terms of help from Abolition 2000, Phillip White was unsure…he wanted people to help him decide on his next move.

Phillip felt that we needed to continue as a working group and continue up until July and maybe keeping an eye on things beyond that. He wasn’t sure know how active they needed to be, and was unsure about how much they needed to try and fit this issue into the broader fissile materials’ issues.

Mayors for Peace and working w/ parliamentarians…

There was an expressed desire for greater cooperation with Abolition 2000. There is huge potential for capacity building, which has already taken place to a certain degree for the last five years. Mayors for Peace has quadrupled its membership, including many Japanese mayors, getting funds from local cities and authorities. It is also getting mayors involved, both here and at previous NPT meetings. The draft annual report was available in limited quantities.

Mayors for Peace secretariat is in Hiroshima, but a second secretariat has spun off, which is specifically focused on Mayors for Peace Vision 2020 campaign. The next world conference for all the members will be in August 2009 in Nagasaki.

Mayors for Peace has been sending delegations to meetings, general meetings of mayors at national and regional levels. The world congress of united cities and local governments will be in Santiago Chile. June 2008 will be world conference on city diplomacy.

All member groups of ABOLITION 2000 should be encouraged to find out if their mayor is in the network.

PNND…

Since last year PNND has grown to about 500 members, from about 74 countries. Abolition 2000 could help recruit parliamentarians in their own country. When there are enough parliamentarians, a non-partisan section can be formed in that country. Alyn Ware also noted that there are now 5 co-presidents from the network. There is also a special representative who talks about connection between nuclear weapons and genocide. There Japanese, German and English web-sites. There is also a brochure in 25 languages.

On May 23-25, there is the NATO parliamentary assembly. In July, there is the EU parliament, and later in July there is the Nova Scotia Pugwash Conference bringing parliamentarians from around the world.

How can Abolition 2000 help… we don't have funding to help members get to meetings, says Alyn. If you have any possibilities for finding travel funds for parliamentarians to come to meetings it will help them engage further in the network. He also noted that another event - G8 speakers’ conference – will be hosted by Japan in September, in Hiroshima. These are chairs of parliaments from G8 countries.

Abolition 2000 could engage parliamentarians in their countries on the issue areas that Abolition 2000 works on. Often there are specific initiatives that can be done with this, such as certain appeals.

Abolition 2000 should also let PNND know what initiatives are happening in other parliaments. There are email updates that go out in several languages… this is a way that encourages parliamentarians to do things in other countries.

Nuclear Weapons Convention…

A revised NWC has been submitted to UNGA, NPT, etc. Costa Rica and Malaysia also submitted a working paper on NWC and how it fits into the NPT process and could assist in 2010. The Malaysia resolution to the UNGA calls for negotiations leading to a NWC. That language is important… it addresses the argument that its too early to do this.

ICAN….

Launched at the 2007 NPT, in Vienna. There have been regional launches since then.There are also a number of international partners circulating. There is a very active and vibrant website with capacity for national pages in different languages. (http://www.icanw.org/)

ICAN would like Abolition 2000 to get information about the campaign out to all organisations and encourage them to use the materials and resources available on the website, and to report back about what is happening. (Editor’s note: there is a link to ICAN on Abolition 2000’s main page)

Hiroshima Nagasaki Protocol…

There were copies of this protocol on the table outside the meeting. This protocol seeks to identify specific steps which can be taken, even as negotiations were being conducted, to show good faith on the negotiations and to stop threat of use of nukes, etc.

The campaign is aimed at gathering support among cities to sign on to an appeal, partly directed at their own governments to support and encourage their governments to move the protocol through the prepcom process. Secondly, the campaign will approach governments in direct lobbying with the hopes that in 2009 governments will want to discuss it at the prepcom.

Abolition 2000 members were asked to circulate the protocol to mayors, to help approach governments, and to help when prepcom comes around. Folks are waiting for broad based support from cities on this before bringing it to UNGA in 2009.

NATO nuclear weapons in Europe…

There was not too much substantial here. Folks are hearing the same stories. Martin Butcher will be convening a meeting on this on 6 May in Geneva. He is a good resource on this issue, and could be asked to be a convenor of a working group.

There is a big event in Germany in August, but the biggest event in the past year is with the Italians who have been doing popular law proposal, connecting with pop culture in Germany- possibly Nina Hagen. The Dutch have finally got together to discuss strategy and a campaign…they are meeting on June 10. There is a review of security doctrine in 2009, it should be something that we think about and co-ordinate. In further news, Condi Rice is going to Stockholm at the end of May…the Swedes are organising a lot of this.

Nuclear weapons free zone (NWFZ)…

The African NWFZ hasn't entered into force yet, it needs 28 ratifiers. Recently, there has been a re-emergence of understanding that it is important. Three more ratifiers in Africa are needed. When ratified, it would mean that all of the southern hemisphere would be a NWFZ! This strengthens the initiative that Brazil is leading.

On collaboration between zones… the Mexico initiative in 2005 of states parties to NWFZ provides a powerful group of like-minded countries that could start a collaborative programme. They had agreed on a statement that was submitted to NPT. The next conference of states party to NWFZ - just prior to NPT – efforts could be taken to increase collaboration among the 113 countries on nuclear abolition issues.

Abolition 2000 could engage with states parties, see what are they doing about the gathering, what do they see as potential, what can we offer them.

On new NWFZ’s…

The middle east’s old proposal is still pending. There is also the north east Asia, European, and Arctic proposals. Jayantha Dhanapala, former Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs, has just done an interesting paper on NWFZ’s. It was also raised in an informal way in the Canadian parliament.

In central Asia, states which still had military alliances with NWS in various forms established a NWFZ, and that was precedent-setting. Further, control of fuel cycle activities was included, and this is also a precedent that could be used in the Middle East.

Updates from nuclear weapons states on what is happening…

France: there is a big campaign on modernisation and new strategies. Members noted Sarkozy’s speech in Cherborg. The French strategy is to change the idea that security is based on nuclear weapons. Currently, there is talk about reduction because of funding problems, but nothing on disarmament. Campaign’s emphasis is on abolition!

US: the government concluded a series of public hearings, mandated by law, in connection with the preparation of an environmental impact statement on the modernisation of the nuclear weapons research and manufacturing infrastructure. Though it is supposed to be about the environmental impacts, anti-nuke groups used the process to object. The US received 104,000 comments, and 600 people testified in person, well in excess of previous processes. The government is expected to respond to all of those comments in its final report – which is a significant challenge. It seems that the project will go forward regardless…

It was noted that there needs to be better collaboration amongst organizations and individuals resisting the modernization of nuclear arsenals in their countries, particularly the US, UK and France… there are commonalities and these should be built upon.

Within the campaign for a nuclear weapons free world, there is talk about abolition, when historically these groups haven't really done that in the past. Action to date has focussed on eliminating the reliable replacement warhead. It was also noted the US government has allocated 500-700 billion US dollars over the next ten years towards nuclear energy subsidies.

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is issuing an appeal to the next president of the USA, calling on him to take leadership on Nuclear Disarmament

Abolition 2000 could act as a link between the UK, US and French campaigners

Space…

Global Network just had annual meeting in Omaha Nebraska, at StratCom, where they plan for nuclear and conventional warfare around the world.

Canada does not have a national space policy…Anthony is working on this and other similar issues. Rideau institute held a major roundtable on space in February of this year. US-based Alliant Techsystems recently offered to buy the entire Canadian space sector, including sophisticated satellites, however the Rideau institute launched a major national campaign against this acquisition, and succeeded in stopping the sale. (Editor’s note: our briefing notes on this issue may be found at: http://www.rideauinstitute.ca/site/c.doIELOOuGnF/b.3348233/k.A4E1/Space_Security.htm )

Keep Space for Peace Week is the first week of October.

Missiles…

The US plans on putting interceptors in Poland and radars in the Czech republic- this is another area that we certainly could be providing solidarity.

There was a question put to the group as whether Abolition 2000 wants to issue a

statement on Iran?

It was noted that Greenpeace has some good info on this that could be made available, and that Abolition 2000 should prepare something in case a surprise attack is launched- perhaps. No Decision was taken.

IRENA…

There was a proposal from Alice to this meeting to encourage governments to engage in negotiations with them this fall.

Some folks suggested that we need to do some catching up and see what other organisations are saying and doing on this…we were in some ways caught out of the loop.

There was also a suggestion we link with uranium mining bans. This lends to positive ways to make the links between security, environment, and development. Abolition 2000 New Zealand arranged meetings before this meeting in Germany that then led to New Zealand's engagement.

We'd like to encourage certain countries to join…are there certain ones that we should be going for where we have membership? Are there ones that we should hold off on? Alyn is in touch with Herman Sheer to ask for guidance in terms of what kind of help we can get to move forward.

Alyn will report back to the global council, and we'll work from there.

There was a suggestion that for the next NPT, Abolition 2000 should be engaged in side events on Uranium mining, and that we set up something with some governmental official. Further, we could also link up to the carbon footprint issue.

Alice Slater is convenor of this working group and welcomes additional engagement.Jim Green is a helpful contact on Uranium Mining. Global Nuclear Energy Partnership- GNEP…

The US’ Department of Energy (DOE) calls GNEP, a non-proliferation initiative. Initially non-reprocessing countries would have had to forgo the option of reprocessing. However, the US DOE found that no one is interested.

US now no longer requires countries to forgo enrichment or reprocessing technology, and the process used to separate Pu, in France, England and Japan is a slight variation of the way Pu was yanked out for the Manhattan project (Purex). US wanted to make it slightly more difficult to get the material needed for the weapons. US has now put aside its objection to using the Purex process, in order to get countries to sign-on.

21 countries have joined the partnership already, including France, Japan, Australia, UK, Italy, Canada and Russia. Several countries refused to give up their rights for Uranium enrichment…for a complete list, contact Nick Roth of NAPF. US groups been doing well in opposing the domestic piece. However it is difficult bringing a halt to the international component. Many countries are joining this as a way to promote their

types of reactors.

Abolition 2000 participants agreed to form a working group in the network that would oppose GNEP. The group would share information and possibly do an open letter for GNEP countries. The group would also raise awareness and opposition to GNEP. Nick Roth will convene this working group, Philip, Jean-Yvon, Merav, and Anthony will join as well (in varying capacities).

Article 9 campaign…

Article 9 of the Japanese constitution is the article that renounces war. There have been movements by the Japanese Government to amend the constitution, and currently there is a global conference going on now in Tokyo to defend Article 9.

There was also a recent ruling that Japan's actions in Iraq are unconstitutional.

Abolition 2000 should also look to encourage other countries to develop constitutions to avoid militarisation and abolish their armies. Costa Rica is a good example of this- it has been developed even further, it is becoming a sort of people's constitution.

Abolition 2000 participants approved sending this greeting to the Article 9 conference in Japan:

The 2008 Abolition 2000 AGM, meeting in Geneva, wholeheartedly supports the efforts to protect Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and the conference currently taking place. We also encourage other countries to adopt strong constitutional measures to reverse militarisation, using the positive Costa Rican example. We send a greeting of solidarity and support to all those gathered, and wish the conference the best of success.

Operating Status…

There are some 2000-2500 nuclear warheads able to be launched in a relatively short time. In the past there were more. An appeal was put together which has lots of signatories (John Hallam has the numbers).

Issue was given priority in Kofi Annan's speech to the opening of the 2005 NPT RevCon.In 2006 there was a workshop on the sidelines of the First Committee of the UNGA.

In 2007 New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Chile, Nigeria sponsored a resolution in the First Committee of the UNGA. It passed 139 for, 3 against, with 34 abstentions.

Abolition 2000 would like for everyone to write to their governments to vote in support of this resolution.

John Hallam asked that Abolition 2000 approach governments and show them that there is significant domestic support for a yes vote on this resolution.

There is a de-facto working group on this - Steve, John and Alyn…perhaps it could be formalised.

Decision: John Hallam will circulate a sample letter for member groups in NATO countries to write their own letters, not a sign-on letter. Those who do write to their governments will circulate letters also on the Abolition 2000 caucus list serves.

G8 Summit…

Article 9 conference is sending a letter to the G8 summit. It is available on their web-site.

On September 8, 2008 there will be a meeting of parliamentary speakers, in Hiroshima. Mayor Akiba will have an opportunity to speak to them. PNND members are trying to reach out to their speakers to alert them to listen to Mayor Akiba, and possibly, to make a statement on nuclear disarmament. This may be the first time a high level official from the US will be appearing in Hiroshima (Nancy Pelosi).

4th SSOD…

There is quite an effort in the General Assembly in the past year or so to make this happen. It appears, right now, that the only obstacle is the opposition of the US. Conceivably that could change in the new administration, therefore it is possible.

Summit on WMD…

It has been proposed by the Blix Commission. No real talk about this happening. There is an effort to have a civil society world summit on the elimination of nuclear weapons, which would involve military, business, national security officials, (retired), as well as other participants still to be decided upon. Presumably, some of the NGO folks would be behind that….Bruce Blair’s world security institute. Not much has been released to the public about this. Participants felt that we need to have some kind of relationship to this process... Henrik Salander will be involved, Gorbachev as well.

There is a hope to turn it into a huge lobbying group to push for negotiations to begin. There are concerns by the organisers that if they are successful in attracting military types, they will then need to step away from the nuclear abolition movement folks. We should try to have more conversations with Bruce Blair.

As more information becomes available, it will be circulated on the Abolition Caucus.

International Decade for Disarmament…

Resolution adopted by the GA that calls on the UNDC to prepare an agenda for preparing for the decade, in the 2009 April meeting. Non-Aligned Movement member countries are lining up behind this idea that Sierra Leone had put forward.

Agreed: Abolition 2000 has agreed to set up a small working group to follow this… Aaron Tovish will convene it and Susi Snyder will join it. John Burroughs has asked to be kept abreast of the issues.

2010…

Members were inclined to think that a big public demonstration is a good idea. The idea is that if we are going to influence what happens in 2010 we need to do that beforehand.

Jackie was very involved in organizing the May 1, 2005 demonstration in NY. Gensuikyo brought over 800 Japanese to that revue conference….they are committed to bringing 1,000 people in 2010. Mayors for Peace are planning a major presence in NY at that time. A lot of other countries will also send lots of other people.

The only real way to pull this off in NY is to work closely with United for Peace and Justice, whose headquarters are in NY. One issue to be aware of is that in 2005, we were in a better position financially. If we are committed to doing this, participants felt that we need to raise money…there are significant costs associated with a demonstration of this size- from permits, and sound stage, to staff time for organising.

Participants also felt that we also need to figure out how to incorporate youth into the 09 PrepCom, when it will coincide with Think Outside the Bomb conference of NAPF.

There was a healthy discussion of ways in which to raise awareness in 2010.Suggestions included bringing people in from Europe or holding a huge demonstration in Brussels, that could be more politically significant and ecologically sound. There was also a suggestion of organizing continentally.

Part of the Mayors’ strategy is to have governments pay for Mayors to be on their delegations, or national mayoral associations to pay for this.

Participants also raised the merit of web-based technologies to link events happening all around the world.

Discussion also focussed on what we need to do after the RevCon - we need to start planning our strategy depending on whether it is a good or bad conference.

Some ideas raised at the AGM about strategies included thinking about recent events like the Olympic flame, with suggestions about a nuclear flame that could travel the globe (perhaps starting in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, etc), and could then travel, visiting mayors around the globe, and then is put out in NY. The flame could move around the world by bicycle with folks sponsoring the rides from one place to the other.

There was clear support for a decentralized approach to organizing events leading up to 2010. However, members felt that even if we decentralized events, we still needed to organise something at the NPT itself.

There was also discussion about a petition that could go along with the flame from city to city, meeting mayors in each city and having fund-raising events, etc.

Participants concluded that we could not decide on the flame idea at the AGM, but that members would go home and reflect on different kinds of symbolism that reflect what we're doing.

Members also suggested that we could also tap into the Mayors’ capacity for the media and also pitch ideas around for simple things that mayors could do, such as hunger strikes.

In conclusion, members felt that we could do something big in NY as well as decentralized events, starting at the 2009 NPT and culminating at the 2010 RevCon. Peaceboat could be a way of transporting our imagery around the world.

Agreed: 2010 Action plan working group, to come up with a proposal and report back within six months, for action decisions towards 2010. Members include: Peter Kolbe, Pol Dyhvyetter, John Hallam, Steve [Staples], George Farebrother, Pierre Villard, Jean- Marie Mantaigne, Jackie Cabasso, Anthony Salloum, and Sharon. Ashley Woods expressed an interest as well in being part of this group, and will be encouraged to become a member of Abolition 2000.

The group will be convened by Anthony Salloum, as a starting place, but would like to shift off after six months.

Agreed: Abolition 2000 at this AGM, in Geneva, reaffirms its support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) as a priority, and recognises that this includes several different approaches, including ICAN and the Hiroshima - Nagasaki protocol. We also recognise that at the completion of the 2010 review conference, if the NWC has not been achieved, we may consider new approaches.

Returning to the US India Deal, Phillip suggested the group could use more input and members. At this prepcom, Philip's objective has been to get countries to raise the issue…ideally, naming the issue clearly as the US India deal, but if not, at least in general terms. The key issue at the moment is that the NSG is the area where we can actually make a real difference, but that is only 45 countries. This is an issue for the whole NPT. Philip has started to talk to countries that are not in the NSG because they might have more freedom and feel less pressure about stating the issue. He noted that Egypt and the NAM have already raised it. Mexico and Malaysia will be approached. If there are people who can talk to a few countries about this, that would be good. The NSG meets 19- 21 May. Phillip asked whether the working group wanted to continue after the new administration is in place in the US? He stressed that we should include statements on this at each opportunity.

Affirmation of Service…

There was an appeal to people who have not yet responded whether or not they want to stay on the Global Council, to please get in touch with us and let us know. They may do so by contacting Anthony Salloum at asalloum@rideauinstitute.ca.

Global Council:

There will be one final attempt to contact those who have not responded. This will be the responsibility of the Co-ordinating Committee.

Irene Gale, Ian Prior and Jo valentine will no longer able to participate on the Global Council. Tamara Sundberg, Xavier Renou, Steven Starr, Sharon and Merav will be added to the Global Council.

Global Council was affirmed.

The 2008-2009 Abolition 2000 Co-ordinating Committee members are:Jackie CabassoAkira KawasakiDominique LalanneAlice Slater

Alyn WareSteven StaplesSusi SnyderPierre Villard

Richard Salvador cannot be on the CC anymoreDave Robinson will be asked….

Decision: The Abolition 2000 AGM, meeting in Geneva, reaffirms its decision of the previous year that the Abolition Global Council list serve is only to be used for Global Council business and not for information sharing.

The meeting concluded with thanks to Jackie and Anthony for facilitating and Susi and Sandra for taking minutes.