Engaging parliamentarians in the process to achieve a Middle
East Zone free from Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of
Mass Destruction
Alyn Ware
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament
www.pnnd.org
Vital role of parliamentarians
• Elected representatives of civil society
• Help shape government policy
• Parliaments as a public arena
More freedom than governments
• Don’t have to always focus on entrenched government positions
• Able to put forward ‘smart’ approaches to provide possibility of success
Varied arenas of action
• Nationally – encourage good faith participation by their government
• Regionally – demonstrate possibility of agreement between Middle East actors
• Internationally – demonstrate global concern, importance of the issue and strength of global support
Regional and Global
• Middle East Zone as a diplomatic approach to preventing proliferation – a viable alternative to the use of force or to accepting proliferation
Actions - National
• Questions
• Debates
• Resolutions
• Statements – party, individual
Actions – Regional and International
• Resolutions– Parliamentary Assembly for the
Mediterranean– Inter Parliamentary Union– OSCE PA, NATO PA
• Civil society meetings• Intergovernmental meetings
– NPT, UN General Assembly
• Joint statement
Joint Parliamentary Statement for a Middle East Zone Free from Nuclear Weapons and all other Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Drafted after consultations with parliamentarians and disarmament experts from Israel, Egypt, Iran and globally;
• Based on UN General Assembly resolution and IPU 2009 resolution
• Released at the PNND Assembly in Bern, Oct 2011• Available in – Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew,
Japanese, Greek, Spanish• Opportunities to present at NPT, UN General Assembly
etc…
www.pnnd.org