Topic: Trade in High-Tech Weapons Systems
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Victoria Minka
School: Kalamazoo Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All South Africa position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
In 1989 South Africa was the first and only nation to dismantle all of its nuclear weapons of their own free will. Since then, we in South Africa have taken a firm stance against all use of this form of weaponry, hoping to act as a beacon of peace to other powerful nations who were building large nuclear arsenals of their own. Instead, South Africans use the Uranium native to our country, or that it recovers from old nuclear weaponry, to make strides in nuclear energy, technology, and use as a medical isotope. As a whole, we in South Africa are firmly set against nuclear weaponry and we have been an active voice in nuclear nonproliferation.
Since South Africa dismantled its nuclear weapons, we have played a critical role in encouraging other nations to continue forward with nuclear nonproliferation and placing focus on nuclear energy instead of nuclear weaponry. This is enforced by the fact that South Africa has signed all major resolutions regarding the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in the United Nations since FW de Klerk became President in 1989. Some of the treaties that we have ratified are the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water (PTBT), and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The passing of these treaties clearly shows South Africa’s unyielding stance when it comes to nuclear nonproliferation. Our nation of South Africa also supports the idea that exporters of high-tech weapons contribute to global instability, which is shown through our ratification of NPT whose objective is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. Even though some nations may spread nuclear weapons and technology to make more money or gain intelligence, we in South Africa believe that this attitude towards nuclear weaponry only makes our world less stable and countries that spread nuclear weaponry should be held accountable for the major role they have played.
The nation of South Africa is also part of several organizations outside of the United Nations that supports these same ideals, such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Much like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, our country believes there should be limits placed on all nuclear related exports, since the knowledge of different forms of technology and the movement of high-enriched Uranium (which is used in nuclear weapons) is extremely important to global security. However, South Africa has a great deal of high-enriched Uranium as well as being at the forefront of nuclear technology and energy, so we support the sharing of knowledge to help find peaceful ways to successfully use nuclear materials. Many other African nations are similar to our South Africa, since Uranium is a more common resource in Africa than in other places around the globe. Due to this large amount of Uranium in the area, South Africa and 42 other African nations signed the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba), showing their willingness to stand together and find ways to regulate nuclear activities in a peaceful manner. South Africa does not believe that any country purchasing nuclear weapons is a victim, but is in fact a nation that needs to stand with nonproliferation efforts to stop the use of nuclear weapons altogether.
Due to our firm stance on nonproliferation for several decades now, South Africa has created a great deal of allies over the common ideal that nuclear weaponry is too great a threat to global stability and environmental health to continue. Many of our allies are African nations or other states that took ratified treaties regarding nuclear disarmament in the United Nations (Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, and Nigeria). We have also cultivated agreements with several world powers as we continue to try and develop nuclear power plants in our great nation. We in South Africa are proud to stand by a great deal of other powerful nations as we push for a more peaceful world without the trade of nuclear weaponry that is devastating to all of mankind, no matter their country of origin.
