To World's Antinuclear Groups;
(please copy and disseminate)

To the Abolition 2000 Radiation Health Effects working group From Solange Fernex, (WILPF France, IPB, The Greens Alsace) France, fax: +33-389-407804

TWO URGENT PROPOSALS FOR AN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION OF THE COMMERCIAL USE OF NUCELAR POWER

1. Withdraw the mandate given by the United Nations to the IAEA to promote the commercial use of nuclear energy.

a) A letter (annex a) has been sent by the International Peace Bureau (IPB), together with the Chernobyl Permanent People's Tribunal book to the delegations to the NPT conference in New York on April 12.

The Tribunal judged that the IAEA must cease to promote nuclear power and limit itself to the surveillance and management of the nuclear waste and the safe dismantlement and storage of nuclear weapons and facilities. Safeguarding and promoting are contradictory mandates, in the light of the reality of the health and environmental catastrophe caused by atomic energy, and they should not be maintained.

For this, a resolution should be tabled at the UN General Assembly this or next fall, ending the mandate given to the IAEA to promote the commercial use of atomic energy.

Moreover, at the next NPT Review Conference, Article IV of the NPT, which states: 1 ... "the inalienable rights of all Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination ..." should be suppressed by an amendment.

(b) A similar letter (annex a) was distributed with the Chernobyl book to the 589 delegates to the Assembly of the Council of Europe (35 member states) asking them to work on the IAEA mandate, but also, for the EU members, on the EURATOM mandate, which provides also the promotion of the commercial use of nuclear power.

This effort has now to be relayed at the level of each government and foreign ministry of the member states of the UN and of the Council of Europe. This should be undertaken by friendly organizations from now on, before the summer holdiays if possible. Please keep in contact to help reinforce the campaign.

2. Revoke the Accord signed in 1959 between the IAEA and the WHO:
A letter (annex b) has been sent by PSR/IPPNW Switzerland, together with the Chernobyl Permanent People's Tribunal book, to the world's health ministers, gathered from May 5 on, at the World Health Organization in Geneva for the 1997 World Health Assembly.

Among other problems, the Ministers assess and attribute funding to the research program of the WHO on Chernobyl (IPHECA). They have the capacity to pass resolutions, as in 1995, when they brought the case of the use of nuclear weapons before the International Court of Justice (World Court Project) in The Hague.

We hope very much that for instance countries like Ireland, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand and others, could table a discussion on the real health effects of Chernobyl, and a condemnation of the Accord, signed in 1959 between WHO and IAEA, which gives to the pronuclear physicists of the IAEA the right to control the publication by the physicians of the WHO of all radiation-induced health effects. Some Pacific states and NAM would surely follow suit. This could lead to a resolution to revoke the Accord, which could be tabled in the World Health Assembly, May 1998 in Geneva or in the UN General Assembly this fall in New York.

Same as before, this effort has now to be relayed in each country, member of the WHO. It would be wonderful if the follow-up could be organized now in the different capitals, at the level of the health ministry or the government of each member state, with a request for a discussion on these topics in the parliaments, especially in non-nuclear countries.

Note: The Proceedings of the Permanent People's Tribunal "Chernobyl. Environmental, Health and Human Rights Implications" are available (April '97) in English, French, and German. 240 pages, 16 pages of illustrations, bibliography (US$12.-, SFr. 18.-). 50% discount (+ postage) for quantities of 10 or more. Order by fax +41-22-738-9419, or e-mail: ipb@gn.apc.org

Annexes:

a) Letters from IPB:
-To the Delegations of NPT member States at the Preparatory Committee for NPT Review Conference, New York, April 15.
-To the Representatives to the Council of Europe General Assembly, Strasbourg

Your Honor,

We have the honour to present to you the Permanent People's Tribunal's verdict and its proceedings on "The Enviornmental, Health and Human Rights Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe", for which we will commemorate the very sad 11th anniversary on April 26, 1997, this very week.

After listening to about 40 outstanding international witnesses, the PPT came to the conclusion that nuclear energy is dangerous (carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic), and that the same regulations which apply to drugs and chemicals should also apply to this source of energy, which means that it should be forbidden.

The Tribunal therfore asks for the *banning of nuclear power for civil and military uses, and for the withdrawal, by the UN, of the madate given to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to promote nuclear energy for commercial uses.

Counsequently, Article IV of the NPT should be suppressed by an amendment, and the IAEA mandate to promote the commercial use of nuclear energy has to be withdrawn, by a corresponding resolution, as a contribution to the currently debated UN reforms.

At the Intergovernmental Conference of the EU (ICJ) in Amsterdam, next June, EURATOM has likewise to be mandated to cease to promote nuclear power fo the wellbeing of Europeans, East and West.

IAEA and EURATOM should instead survey the cleanup of contaminated land, the dismantlement of nuclear weapons and commercial facilities and the safe control of the enormous quantities of very long-lived radioactive waste, unfortunately already produced since 50 years.

We hope that this document will be of interest and use for you, your delegation and your government, and that, as an elected representative of the people of Europe, you will be able to act in the direction indicated by the Permanent People's Tribunal.

We remain at your disposal for any further questions,

Yours very respectfully,
Solange Fernex, Vice President
International Peace Bureau