Statement to the 3rd Preparatory Committee for the 2020 NPT Review Conference

Cesar Jaramillo Featured Leave a Comment

…and spirit of the NPT, as well as the broader goal of nuclear abolition.

As things stand, their purported support of nuclear abolition can only hold true in the most ethereal and noncommittal way possible. Because, in practice, they are effectively enabling their nuclear-armed allies. It is thus imperative that they muster the courage, the foresight and the audacity to work with friends and foes in the formulation of common security arrangements that do not rely on the threat of nuclear annihilation—and to signal that nuclear weapons are unequivocally unacceptable, even for their allies.

Delivered by:

Cesar Jaramillo

Drafted by:

Project Ploughshares and the SEHLAC Network

Endorsed by:

Canadian Pugwash Group

Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Age…

Tracing Canada’s military exports: Analyzing the 2017 report

Ploughshares Featured Leave a Comment

Canadian military exports on record.

In 1990, the government of Canada committed to publishing an annual report on Canadian military exports and their countries of destination. Although this commitment has been reinterpreted over the years, the ongoing publication of this report remains a core component of the government’s commitment of transparency to the Canadian public and international community, as well as a means to monitor potential diversion, illicit trafficking, and misuse of Canadian military goods.

Each annual report compiles information on the export permits that Canadian military producers are required to obtain before exporting items on the Export Control List (ECL). Canadian military exports to the United States, which are an estimated 60 per cent of total military exports, are…

Preserving peace through Moon culture

Jessica West Featured Leave a Comment

Project Ploughshares Program Officer Jessica West in conversation with Michelle Hanlon, cofounder of For All Moonkind

Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 40 Issue 1 Spring 2019

Jessica West: You have taken an interesting route to your present role as President of the not-for-profit organization For All Moonkind, one with some Canadian connections. For instance, you earned your LLM in Air and Space Law from McGill University in Montreal; along with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, you are an Advisor to the Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto. You’re also Associate Director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, and have an interesting legal career in commercial and public law. What inspired you

…

Arms sales, murder, and the illusion of firmness

Cesar Jaramillo Featured Leave a Comment

…repression and human-rights violations at home and abroad. By any modern standard, Saudi Arabia is a human-rights pariah.

According to Washington-based Freedom House, the country is among the “worst of the worst” human-rights offenders in the world. Year after year, authoritative organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemn the consistent, systematic repression of the Saudi civilian population by the governing regime. The Canadian government’s own human-rights assessment on the Kingdom points to the “high number of executions, repression of political opposition, arbitrary arrest, suppression of freedom of expression and discrimination against women.”

Saudi violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are not confined to home territory. The catastrophic humanitarian crisis currently facing neighbouring Yemen is the…

Time for answers: Letter to Trudeau on the Saudi arms deal

Ploughshares Featured 3 Comments

Arabia.

Canadians have been waiting for answers for more than three months since you first indicated that your government is looking at this question. More crucially, the people of Yemen have been waiting for that answer, and an assurance that Canada is prepared to act decisively to avoid contributing to war crimes in their country, for those same agonizing three months. It is time, Prime Minister, to assure Canadians and Yemenis that Canadian-made LAVs will not be going to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Sincerely,

Action contre la faim Canada Amnesty International Canada (English branch) Amnistie internationale Canada francophone Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Group of 78 Médecins du Monde Canada Oxfam Canada Oxfam-Québec Project Ploughshares…

Canadian Council of Churches urges Ottawa to support nuclear ban treaty

Ploughshares Featured, News, Nuclear Weapons, Publication 1 Comment

December 21, 2018

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Email: pm@pm.gc.ca

Re: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau

We, the undersigned, representing all 26 member denominations of The Canadian Council of Churches, write to urge that the Government of Canada support the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Click on image to read full letter.

…

Social media and conflict

Branka Marijan Featured Leave a Comment

…infamous radio station Radio Télévision des Mille Collines in Rwanda broadcast propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians, and the UN peacekeeping mission in July 1994, creating an atmosphere that almost certainly contributed to the genocide that followed.

However, researchers and political analysts who study social media agree that virtually instantaneous transmission and the ability of anyone with a cellphone to share information is making more information available and changing how such information is used.

More and more, militaries are building social media into their strategies and tactics. The Canadian armed forces are considering new ways to respond to disinformation campaigns, recruiting staff with social-media skills, and engaging with the Canadian public on social-media platforms. The belief is growing around the…

Bill C-47: Remarks to the Senate Standing Committee

Cesar Jaramillo Conventional Weapons, Featured Leave a Comment

treatment afforded to the U.S. is obviously out of line with the expectations of consistency, objectivity, and non-discrimination specified in article 5.

Such exemptions would be incompatible with ATT obligations regardless of the recipient. In the case of the United States, they are especially problematic. The United States is the largest exporter of weapons and military equipment in the world. Canadian components can be incorporated into systems in the United States and then exported to third parties without requiring further authorization from Canada.

The United States is also, by far, the largest recipient of Canadian military goods. Despite the lack of transparency in this regard, Project Ploughshares estimates that Canadian exports of military goods to the U.S. are worth as…

Canada and the Global Compact on Refugees

Sonal Marwah Featured, Forced Displacement and Migration Leave a Comment

…traditional durable solutions (resettlement, voluntary repatriation, and local integration), as well as other solutions and complementary pathways. Canada must acknowledge this responsibility and respond appropriately.

2. The need for policy coherence when responding to refugees

The current Canadian government has adopted a whole-of-government framework in which departments (Economic Affairs, Social Affairs, International Affairs, and Government Affairs) align their program activities and policies to achieve shared outcomes. To realize Canada’s commitments to the GCR, these departments must harmonize policies that relate to forced displacement and refugees.

For example, it is hypocritical for Canada to publicly condemn gross human-rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, including a pattern of gender-based repression, while permitting the sale of $15-billion of military equipment to the Saudi government…

We are ready for 2019

Cesar Jaramillo Conventional Weapons, Defence & Human Security, Featured, Forced Displacement and Migration, Nuclear Weapons, Space Security Leave a Comment

…Collaboration with a coalition of Canadian human rights, disarmament, and development civil-society organizations to address shortcomings in the Canadian government’s proposed legislation on accession to the Arms Trade Treaty (Bill C-47); Participation as a member of the international Control Arms Coalition in multilateral conferences on the Arms Trade Treaty, including the 4th Conference of ATT States Parties. Refugees and forced migration Collaboration with The Canadian Council of Churches on a legal challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which prevents most migrants that enter Canada from the United States from claiming refugee status; Continued research and analysis on governance related to displaced persons, on such topics as the global compacts on migration and refugees, and the refugee crisis in the…