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Disarmament

In 1983, the UN Secretary-General asked a group of 21 respected men and women drawn from various walks of life and all parts of the world to examine the twin issues of environmental degradation and economic development. Under the leadership of Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway, this World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) studied, debated and held public hearings and ultimately prepared and presented its report, "Our Common Future", to the UN General Assembly in 1987. In this report, disarmament issues were linked with environment and development issues in its vision of a sustainable future. In particular, the possibility of diverting funds from military expenditures to sustainable development costs as well as the environmental impact of war were discussed.

However, disarmament has never been on the UN’s official sustainable development agenda, largely due to the highly volatile political nature of and perceived sovereignty of the issue. Many nations would not have participated in sustainable development discussions, including the Earth Summit, if disarmament was tabled. In essence, disarmament was dropped so as not to sacrifice any global discussion and agreements on sustainable development -- some movement was better than no movement.

This is not to say that disarmament is not a UN issue. Indeed, disarmament, peacekeeping and peacemaking are integral and ingrained in the UN as it seeks to establish a safe and equitable world and clean environment for all. But disarmament issues are not currently being linked tothe sustainable development agenda despite obvious links to environment and development issues.

The Environment-Development-Disarmament triangle: Environmental stress and degradation is often a cause of social unrest and conflict. Non-sustaining environments (desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, polluted waters) result in famine, poverty, and mass movements of refugees desperately seeking a better life. Other development issues, such as lack of human rights (including racism, slavery etc.), overpopulation, overconsumption of resources, and poor human health can also create or fuel social unrest and conflict. Such development issues are also often the cause of further environmental stress as people utilize whatever resources are available to them as they try to survive. As environment and development issues are intricately and mutually linked as cause and effect, so to is disarmament. While disarmament may be seen to be the result of environmental and developmental stresses, armed conflict itself is also the cause of further, and often devastating, environmental destruction and developmental degradation. Whether all three -- environment, development and disarmament -- are approached together under the umbrella of "sustainable development", or whether disarmament is handled separately, ultimately, changes on all three will be required before mankind reaches the vision of a truly sustainable world.

At this point, we are reflecting the UN’s separation of disarmament from sustainable development and will not be elaborating further on disarmament in our sustainable development site. However, we plan to begin a separate site on peace and security issues soon. Look for it. It will be accessible through UNA-Canada’s homepage.