From 11 to 15 December 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay hosted the first OPANAL's Course on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Instituto Artigas del Servicio Exterior (IASE) in Montevideo.

The Course was delivered by Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and current President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

See the photo gallery.

 

Requirements to receive the Course Diploma

1. 80% attendance.
2. Evaluation exercise (in Spanish). The following are evaluation exercises made by the participants:

Facundo Fernández Guerra

Gabriel Pintos

Gustavo Avellanal

Ifigenia Xifre

Nicolás Aquésolo Lupinacci

Rosemari Galotto

Silvia Núñez

Valentin Touris

 

Comments from Course participants and the instructor

Amb. Sergio de Queiroz Duarte (instructor):

“Fue para mí un gran honor y un placer participar como instructor en el I Curso de OPANAL para jóvenes diplomáticos sobre desarme y no proliferación nuclear. La interacción con los alumnos ha sido muy interesante y pienso que todos hemos podido aprender algo. Las nuevas generaciones tendrán un papel capital en el mantenimiento de la paz y la seguridad internacionales y en legar un mundo libre de armas Nucleares”.

 

Mr. Nicolás Aquésolo Lupinacci:

El Curso fue una “enriquecedora experiencia.

 

Programme of the Course on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

 

Day 1

Introduction

The origin of nuclear weapons

The context of the Cold War

• Nuclear arms race
• Relations between superpowers

 

Treaty of Tlatelolco

Immediate background

• “Missile Crisis” (October 1962, Cuba)
• Initiatives in the United Nations General Assembly – 1962
• Joint Declaration for the denuclearization of Latin America (issued by the Heads of State of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico on 29 April 1963)
• Decision to negotiate the Treaty: Preliminary Meeting on the Denuclearization of Latin America (REUPRAL), 23-27 November 1964
• Negotiation of the Treaty: Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America (COPREDAL), March 1965 to February 1967

Structure of the Treaty of Tlatelolco

• Preamble
• Objectives
• Control System
• Additional Protocols I and II to the Treaty
• Signature and Ratification
• Interpretative declarations

Treaty operations

• Bodies of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL)

Recent participation of the Member States

• Declarations issued by OPANAL and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)

Course material - Day 1:

La proscripción de las armas nucleares en la América Latina y el Caribe: resumen de sus principales etapas, by Ambassador Alfonso García Robles.

Text of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco)

Declaration by the OPANAL Member States – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons – 26 September 2017

CELAC - Special Declaration 21: on the commitment to advance in the multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament 

 

Day 2

Nuclear disarmament at the global level

Nuclear disarmament

• Multilateral initiatives
• United Nations General Assembly
• Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee (ENDC, 1962-1969) - Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD, 1969)
• First Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to Disarmament (SSOD I, 23 May-1 July 1978) - Final Document
• Committee on Disarmament (1979) - Conference on Disarmament (CD, February 1984)
• United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC)
• Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

Major themes on nuclear disarmament

• Fissile material
• Negative security assurances
• Outer space

Nuclear weapons and International Humanitarian Law

• International Humanitarian Law and Humanitarian Initiative 
• Humanitarian Conferences: Oslo, Nayarit, and Vienna
• Humanitarian Pledge
• Activities of non-governmental organizations
• Public opinion and nuclear disarmament
• Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation education

Course material - Day 2:

UNODA – Fact sheet – The Conference on Disarmament and negative security assurances

UNODA – Fact sheet – The Conference on Disarmament and a treaty banning the production of fissile materials for use in nuclear weapons

CTBT– Fact sheet

Text of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (TPCE)

Humanitarian Pledge

 

Day 3

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

1. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT):

• Drafting
• Adoption
• Entry into force

2. NPT structure
3. Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

• 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference
• 2010 NPT Review Conference
• 2015 NPT Review Conference

4. Themes of the NPT Review Conference

• Implementation of the NPT provisions on nuclear disarmament (Article VI), as well as international peace and security
• NPT provisions on non-proliferation, safeguards and nuclear-weapon-free zones
• Inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes

Course material - Day 3:

Text of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNP)

IAEA safeguards for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons

 

Day 4

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

Concept of a nuclear-weapon-free zone

• Establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned (1999)

Treaties that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones

• South Pacific (Treaty of Rarotonga, 1985)
• Southeast Asia (Treaty of Bangkok, 1995)
• Africa (Treaty of Pelindaba, 1996)
• Central Asia (Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, 2006)
• Status of Mongolia as a nuclear-weapon-free State (1992)

Conferences of nuclear-weapon-free zones and Mongolia

• I Conference of States Parties and Signatories to Treaties that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones and Mongolia, Mexico City, 2005
• II Conference of States Parties and Signatories to Treaties that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones and Mongolia, New York, 2010
• III Conference of States Parties and Signatories to Treaties that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones and Mongolia, New York, 2015

Establishment of future nuclear-weapon-free zones 

• Northeast Asia
• Establishment of a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East (ME-WMDFZ)
• Other United Nations initiatives

Course material - Day 4:

Comparative chart of the five nuclear-weapon-free zones

 

Day 5

Perspectives

Current situation of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation policy and perspectives

Evaluation of participants

Course material - Day 5:

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

OPANAL's International Seminar "A world free of nuclear weapons: is it possible? is it desirable? how could it be achieved?"