IASC Weekly (GVA): 1) Linking Humanitarian and Nuclear Response Systems and 2) the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapon
Geneva
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Meeting Documents
1. Linking Humanitarian and Nuclear Response Systems
Piero Calvi-Parisetti, Professor of Emergencies and Humanitarian Action, Milan University, and Rene Nijenhuis, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, OCHA will present the above mentioned study, which was undertaken at the request of the UN Secretary-General.
Background
This report firstly considers the relationship between nuclear accidents and humanitarian crises, with the aim to understand the scope of a possible operational implication of international humanitarian partners in the response to nuclear accidents. It then proceeds to outline the inter-agency coordination arrangements for the response to nuclear emergencies and the headquarters- and field-level coordination mechanisms of the humanitarian community. In its final chapter, it proposes areas for enhanced capacities of humanitarian and nuclear emergency response mechanisms.
2. Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
Simon Bagshaw, Policy Branch, OCHA, will discuss the outcome of the International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. The presentation will focus in particular on the ability of the humanitarian system to respond to a nuclear weapon explosion.
Background
In March 2013, Norway convened an International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. The purpose of the Conference was to begin a facts-based discussion of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons detonation with key stakeholders. It was attended by 127 States, representatives of the UN (FAO, IAEA, OCHA, ODA, UNEP, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHO), ICRC and IFRC, independent experts and more than 150 civil society representatives under the umbrella of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). The Conference was framed around three themes: the immediate humanitarian impact of a nuclear detonation; the wider impact and longer-term consequences; and humanitarian preparedness and response. The discussions revealed a consensus among the majority of States that the detonation of one or more nuclear weapons, be it deliberate or accidental, would have a devastating and catastrophic humanitarian impact both in the short and long term. Its effects would not be limited in time or space and it would have major social, economic and, potentially, environmental consequences. Given the inability of national and international actors to respond in any meaningful way, the majority of States expressed the view that there was a need for an international, legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.
3. AOB