Actions taken:
Austria, together with a group of like-minded countries, has initiated and continues to introduce a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly on the “Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons” on a yearly basis. These resolutions have been adopted with clear majorities, starting with UN-GA Resolution 70/47 adopted with 144 votes in favor. This process is continuous in order to further the understanding of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and to ensure that they underpin all current and future disarmament and non-proliferation efforts.
Furthermore, Austria has, together with a core group of likeminded countries (Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa) initiated UN-GA Resolution 71/258 “Taking forward multilateral disarmament negotiations”, which was adopted with 113 votes in favor. The resolution, which mandated the convening of a conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit and eventually destroy all nuclear weapons, is motivated by the goal to avoid the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons
The humanitarian considerations became a decisive factor for the negotiations in the United Nations framework for a legal instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination, which took place in March, June and July 2017 in New York. Austria closely cooperated with the Austrian Red Cross in this aspect. Members of the Austrian Red Cross were also members of the Austrian delegation at the conference. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted in July 2017 by 122 States. Together with 50 other States, Austria signed the Treaty in September 2017 on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. On 8 May 2018 Austria ratified the TPNW.
In addition, Austria co-initiated a TPNW Signature/Ratification Ceremony within the framework of the International Day for the Complete Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in New York at the end of September 2018, which it plans to repeat this year. Austria and the other sponsors of UN-GA Resolution 73/48 are continuing to cooperate actively with the ICRC on these ceremonies, including through joint outreach and an address by ICRC President Maurer in 2018.
UN-GA Resolution 73/48, adopted in December 2018, which called for signature and ratification of the TPNW, achieved a very good result with 126 affirmative votes, also due to the strong cooperation between Austria and the ICRC towards the joint goal of entry into force of the treaty.
The Austrian Red Cross has engaged in activities to raise awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and enjoyed a very close dialogue with the Austrian government and other relevant actors such as ICAN, allowing it to contribute to a strong dissemination of the topic nationally and internationally. The Austrian Red Cross legal department has continuously used opportunities to attend different events as keynote speaker or panel member to disseminate the positions of the RCRC movement on nuclear weapons.
