Call to Commonwealth to put Common Security ahead of nuclear weapons

The Commonwealth Trade Union Group, ICAN, and IPB urge the Commonwealth to support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Ahead of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa in October, the seventy-million strong Commonwealth Trade Union Group (CTUG), in association with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the International Peace Bureau (IPB) have called on the Commonwealth to support the growing campaign to end nuclear weapons by calling on its member states to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was adopted in 2017 and entered into force in 2021 [1].

One of the four themes of the Samoa CHOGM is “resilient societies to empower individuals for a peaceful and productive life”, in line with the Samoan spirit of “aiga” or family. The CTUG and its partners for peace are urging the Commonwealth to promote the TPNW as part of that peacefulness.

To date, 30 of the 56 Commonwealth countries have become states parties to the UN Treaty [2], including CHOGM host Samoa (as well as the Cook Islands and Niue which though not formal members of the Commonwealth participate through their relationship with New Zealand), a further nine are currently signatories [3] and others have expressed their support for the Treaty.

There are three Commonwealth countries with nuclear weapons (India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom), while Australia endorses extended nuclear deterrence. But the vast majority of Commonwealth countries are supporters of abolishing nuclear weapons, including South Africa, which abandoned its nuclear weapons programme after the apartheid regime was toppled.

CTUG President Zahoor Awan from Pakistan said: “The Commonwealth has the opportunity to promote the common security ideals of the United Nations, as a majority of its member states are already part of the movement for nuclear disarmament. There can be no social justice, another of the Samoan CHOGM’s goals, without peace. Converting weapons spending into windfarms would release massive amounts of money for social protection and help fight climate change – yet another CHOGM theme this year.”

Footnotes

[1] Only seventeen Commonwealth countries have neither signed nor ratified the UN Convention. They are:
Australia, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Eswatini, Gabon, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Uganda.

[2] 30 Commonwealth countries which are states parties (of 70 globally): Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Dominica, Fiji, Gambia, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
In addition, Cook Islands, and Niue.

[3] 3. Nine additional Commonwealth countries which are signatories (out of 93 globally): Bahamas, Barbados, Brunei, Ghana, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Zambia.