Workshop in Australia: Toward the Eradication of Armed Conflict

From February 8-10, 2008, SGI's representative to the United Nations in New York Hiro Sakurai attended a Workshop on the Eradication of Armed Conflict held at the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (ACPACS) at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, organized by Global Action to Prevent War (GAPW). Mr. Sakurai chaired a session on the theme "From Conventional to Nuclear Weapons: Movement Forward on Nuclear Disarmament." The event was cosponsored by GAPW, ACPACS, the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and the project for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS).

Global Action to Prevent War

From left to right: Dr. John Hallam, Appeal on Nuclear Weapons Operating Status; Dr. Susan Wareham, Medical Association for the Prevention of War; Mr. Sakurai; Prof. Marianne Hanson of University of Queensland; and Dr. Saul Mendlovitz, GAPW

The workshop brought together experts from Australia, New Zealand, Timor Leste and the Philippines to discuss three key areas of concern towards achieving a world without war:

1. The need for robust conventional weapons reductions and an arms trade treaty

2. The need for nuclear disarmament undertaken alongside commitments to non-proliferation

3. The need for a standing, individually-recruited, rapid-deployment peacekeeping service that can reduce the costs and operational burdens of UN and regional operations that arrive on the scene too late to stop massive violence in its formative stages.

[Adapted from a report from SGI UN Liaison Officer Hiro Sakurai in New York]