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