4　核兵器禁止条約の実現に向けた市民社会の動向

抄録

Over the years, there have been many calls for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework. The recent global trend toward nuclear disarmament, in particular, has provided civil society with an opportunity to intensify calls for a more comprehensive approach, including through the achievement of a legally binding, verifiable Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC).

This paper outlines efforts and initiatives by civil society to pursue an international agreement on the commencement of negotiations toward such a legal framework, including an NWC, with a view to its early conclusion. It begins by providing a brief description and history of such efforts, including the formulation of a model NWC, following the 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the threat to use or use of nuclear weapons. This paper argues that a more comprehensive approach would be able to overcome some inherent defects of the traditional “step-bystep” approach preferred by nuclear weapon states, as well as by other states relying on a nuclear umbrella, by providing fair and transparent measures for confidence-building. The paper describes some of the concrete proposals and actions by various sectors of the international community, including mayors of municipalities, parliamentarians and the United Nations Secretary-General.

This paper then focuses on the debates and outcomes of the 2010 NPT Review Conference. The agreed recommendations for follow-on actions made reference, for the first time in an NPT Final Document, to the NWC and the international humanitarian law. The paper concludes that such outcomes necessarily highlight the issue of the legitimacy of the Japanese “nuclear umbrella” policy and that a shift in the policy will be required if Japan is to maintain and enhance its moral authority.