Proposition 54K1380

Proposition de résolution relative à l'aide apportée par la Belgique à l'Initiative humanitaire, à une interdiction internationale des armes nucléaires pour des raisons humanitaires.

General information ¶

Authors

PS | SP Stéphane Crusnière
Vooruit Hans Bonte, Meryame Kitir, Fatma Pehlivan, Karin Temmerman, Alain Top, Dirk Van der Maelen

Submission date

Oct. 15, 2015

Official page

Visit

Status

Rejected

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

international humanitarian law nuclear weapon nuclear non-proliferation resolution arms limitation

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB

Voted to reject

Groen Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI PVDA | PTB PP

Party dissidents ¶

• Olivier Maingain (MR) voted to reject.
• Stéphanie Thoron (MR) abstained from voting.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

July 19, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I would like to refer to my written report.

July 7, 2017 was a very sad day for me.

At the time in New York, 122 countries, or ⁇ two-thirds of the members of the United Nations, signed a global nuclear weapons ban treaty, but Belgium was not a party to the negotiations. Colleagues, it is really sad that our country is so broken with a more than a hundred-year-old tradition.

Let me take a step into history.

After the horrors of the First World War, it was Belgium that took the lead on the international stage for the creation of a treaty on the prohibition of chemical weapons in a war. Following the horrors in the loop graves in West Flanders, gas attacks and the like, Belgium took the lead to approve the first treaty for a global ban on such weapons, which caused many casualties not only among the military but also among the civilians.

Anyone who knows his history knows that in the gas attacks also many civilians were the victims, because the wind turned at a certain moment. Belgium took the lead in the struggle for the ban.

In the 1970s, it was also the Belgian diplomacy that, along with those of other countries, came to work to reach a non-proliferation treaty on nuclear weapons. It was our diplomats who, in a limited number of diplomats, joined the final text.

In the 1990s, the last decade of the last century, it was the Belgian diplomacy, supported by the House and the Senate, that took the lead for a treaty on a global ban on the use of landmines.

In the first decade of this century, Belgium did the same about cluster bombs.

Again and again, colleagues, with the support of this House, and then with the support of the Senate, our Minister of Foreign Affairs and our Minister of Defence went on the international stage to try, backed by our diplomacy, to ban weapons that affect not only military but also civilians.

On July 7, 2017, our absence was painful and incomprehensible for me. Neither I myself, of sp.a, nor other opposition parties are bound by what is stated in the government agreement. I will read two passages from the government agreement that you approved.

I read the first passage: “This government agreement strongly endorses all credible and targeted efforts towards effective and balanced disarmament in the world, both in nuclear and conventional fields.”

I read the second passage: “We continue to pursue international initiatives aimed at prohibiting or at least improving control over weapons systems with an arbitrary range and/or excessive impact on civilians.”

The opposition is not bound by this government agreement, but you all approved it. I must confess that I do not understand why all majority parties in the committee ignored our resolution in which we called on other countries in New York to take the step towards a treaty that would gradually ban nuclear weapons in the long run.

I am sorry that we were not there. I have here the statement of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It ends with expressing hope: “Now that the treaty is in place, it will enter into force as soon as 50 countries have signed it.”

On July 7, 2017, 122 countries signed the convention. Therefore, it will not take long before the treaty comes into force. I hope that this Chamber can then join what the Secretary-General proposes, that we participate in the dialogue between the initiators and the countries that have not supported the initiative, even though we have not negotiated with it and others have signed it.

Colleagues, at the beginning of the new political year, I will again present to you a resolution in which I will ask you that Belgium join the treaty. Considering the groundbreaking tradition of our country in the creation of other treaties and taking into account the government agreement, which you yourself approved, I hope that you will support the global ban on weapons, which, in addition to military, also affects civilians, and will allow Belgium to join the treaty.