Topic: Peaceful Development of Nuclear Energy and Control of Fissile Material
Country: Cuba
Delegate Name: Freida Blostein
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Cuba position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
Cuba recognizes the rapidly increasing importance of a world in which the catastrophic capabilities of nuclear weapons are limited. Having acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and as a fundamental signatory to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, Cuba appreciates what such agreements and Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (NFWZs) can do as far as ensuring the peaceful continuation of life. However, even such pertinent documents as the NPT are meaningless unless followed, and until the Nuclear Weapon States pursue the first pillar of the NPT, nuclear disarmament, with as much vehemence as they do the nonproliferation of nuclear materials, the world will remain in fundamental danger. Similarly, until Israel is a member of the NPT it is impossible to establish a NFWZ in the Middle East, and that region will remain in a dangerous and unsustainable tension.
However, the duty of this body, in this meeting, is not to discuss the parameters, failings and concerns of the first or second pillars of the NPT, but rather of its third pillar, the safe pursuit of nuclear technology. As a member of the Non Aligned Movement, Cuba believes that every nation has the inalienable right to research, produce and use nuclear technology, without any form of discrimination. Both Article IV of the NPT and the Final Document of the 2000 NPT Review Conference were very clear in that every nation’s choices in their use of nuclear energy should be respected, and should not jeopardize the nation’s international agreements or relations. There is absolutely no room for reinterpretation of this right, and any restrictions or condition on states party to the NPT must be removed immediately, and no future restrictions may be set. Regardless of nations standings within the international community, or in the minds of some first world nations, all nations, regardless of political or social stances have the right to develop nuclear technologies as a source of research and energy.
Though it is foolish and ridiculous to imply in anyway that nations should assist other states in the pursuit of nuclear technologies, it is neither ridiculous nor foolish to insist that measures restricting the economic ability of nations to research, produce or use nuclear technologies should be removed. Such measures, such as embargos or trade restrictions, when placed without due cause, not only severely restrict nations’ growth in general, but severely limit nations’ ability to use nuclear technology as alternative energy source or as medical treatment.
