March 19, 2024
Gaukhar Muhatzonova
CNS wishes to share the remarkable accomplishment of a former student, MIIS alumna, and Vienna-based director of the CNS International Organizations and Nonproliferation Program, Ms. Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova. This morning, Gaukhar joined UN Secretary General Guterres, Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa, and CTBTO Executive Secretary Floyd to brief the UN Security Council on Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation. Gaukhar not only was in very august company but was the only representative from civil society invited to speak.
“This scenario seems unthinkable, and yet today, the risk of nuclear weapon use is higher than it has been in decades, as the norm against the use – the nuclear taboo – is undermined by reckless rhetoric and threats, especially those issued in the context of an active military conflict. The NPT, the foundational instrument of the non-proliferation and disarmament regime, is under tremendous pressure. Nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapon States are divided over the lack of implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments, while modernization, and in some cases numerical growth, of arsenals sends a message of long-term reliance on nuclear weapons. The majority of UN Member States have rejected nuclear weapons by joining the NPT and nuclear weapon-free zones and, more recently, by concluding the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. But we are now witnessing a recommitment to nuclear weapons, an increase in the value attached to them that challenges the norm against their pursuit and acquisition and contributes to proliferation pressures.”
Read her full statement.
UN Security Council
