You have signed the Humanitarian Pledge. Now put it to work! Join other pledging states in telling the Netherlands that you will only vote for its Security Council candidacy if it makes specific changes to its hypocritical policy on nuclear weapons.
Three steps to earn your support
Wildfire>_ suggests that pledging states make their vote for the Netherlands in the 2016 Security Council election conditional on the Netherlands taking these three steps:
- Joining the Humanitarian Pledge.
- Announcing specific, concrete steps to begin reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the Netherlands’ security strategy and defence doctrine.
- Undertaking to provide to the 2017 NPT preparatory committee (or earlier) a comprehensive transparency report on any nuclear weapons in the Netherlands.
Reasonable conditions
These conditions are entirely reasonable and can be easily met by the Netherlands, without making significant changes to its defence arrangements or interfering with its alliance commitments. As discussed on the Humanitarian Pledge page, the Netherlands can join the pledge immediately, without making any change to its underlying policies or alliance practices. The second and third steps are both things that the Netherlands has called on other states to do, and which are widely recognised (including by NPT review conferences) as necessary steps towards nuclear disarmament. By taking these two steps, the Netherlands government would be doing no more than following its own recommendations!
Other candidates, other issues
The Netherlands is competing against Italy and Sweden. Neither has a much better record than the Netherlands in supporting the aims of the Humanitarian Pledge. But Sweden has undertaken to join it. And Italy has at least refrained from criticising the Pledge and the prospect of moving towards a prohibition on nuclear weapons. In the end, however, the key consideration is that for the Pledge states to exert their influence effectively in this election, they must concentrate on a single target. Even if the choice of the Netherlands were completely arbitrary, it would still be appropriate.
All states take many factors into account in deciding which candidates to vote for in a Security Council election. We are not suggesting other factors be dropped. But adding these three conditions for the Netherlands into the mix of issues makes it impossible for the Netherlands to ignore. Will the Netherlands risk its chances of election, when it can easily remove the threat by making some minor and perfectly reasonable policy changes?
Use your influence to force real change
With this election, the 127 states that have joined the Humanitarian Pledge have an historic opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the global movement to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons on humanitarian grounds. After decades of stalling and procrastination from the nuclear-armed states and their weasel allies, you now have the chance to use your collective influence to persuade a key weasel state to confront its contradictory policies and make changes that will help to unblock the path to nuclear disarmament.
The Netherlands cannot win a seat on the Security Council without the support of the pledging states. You have the power to begin realizing the goals of the Humanitarian Pledge. Use it!
