Resolution for nuclear disarmament is being debated in the Italian Parliament: a positive step towards the TPNW

The Foreign and Community Affairs Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies began yesterday the discussion of a Resolution on nuclear disarmament and the possible Italian approach to the contents of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In the text of the Resolution illustrated yesterday (signed by the Hon. Laura Boldrini and also signed by Hon. Vincenzo Amendola, Fabio Porta, Giuseppe Provenzano and Lia Quartapelle, all from the Democratic Party), after describing the serious threat that nuclear weapons still pose and reconstructing the context of disarmament and non-proliferation instruments, positive requests were made to the Government.

In particular – if approved – the Resolution will commit the Government to “relaunching every initiative aimed at the objective of a world free of nuclear weapons”, evaluating in this context “consistent with the obligations undertaken in the Atlantic Alliance, actions to approximate to the contents of the TPNW Treaty, in particular with regard to “Assistance to victims and environmental rehabilitation”, as provided for in Article 6 of the same Treaty”. In addition, as was already the case last year, the Government is suggested to take into account “the hypothesis of participating as an “observer country” in the second meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to be held in New York from 27 November to 1 December 2023″. A choice already made in 2022 by many of Italy’s allies (both EU and NATO member States) instead absent from the Vienna Conference.

The Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament (Rete Pace Disarmo) and Senzatomica, partners of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and promoters of the mobilisation “Italy, think again”, welcome this initiative, which follows on from parliamentary initiatives already carried out in previous legislatures and, above all, would bring Italy closer to the contents and positive obligations of the TPNW Treaty. Our ultimate goal remains the signature and ratification of this international norm, which definitively bans nuclear weapons, by our Country. However, it is important that steps are already being taken now, especially on the aspect of victim assistance and environmental remedies that need to be implemented as a response to the negative impacts of the use and testing of nuclear weapons.

Our organisations are at the disposal of Parliament and the Government to highlight the importance of concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament, as part of international civil society initiatives that take as their starting point the idea of humanitarian protection, a perspective proposed over a decade ago by the International Red Cross and taken up by the ICAN Campaign (Nobel Prize 2017).

The devastating conflict in Ukraine has shown that no balance of peace is possible with the presence of nuclear weapons, and that the only real and concrete way to secure against this catastrophe is to eliminate them. We hope that Italy too can play its part in this, and we therefore ask that the Government accept the Resolution presented in the Parliament and decide to participate in the international debate that will take place in New York at the end of the year.