http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/11/28/would-uranium-sales-to-india-breach-a-key-labor-treaty/
Monday, 28 November 2011 / 3 comments Would uranium sales to India breach a key Labor treaty? by Bernard Keane Uranium sales to India may be in breach of a key international treaty established by the Hawke government in 1985, according to one of Australia’s most eminent international lawyers. Anti-nuclear group International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons asked ANU Professor of International Law Nicholas Rothwell about the implications of Julia Gillard’s proposal to overturn the Labor Party’s longstanding prohibition on the sale of uranium to countries that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to Rothwell, sales of uranium to India while it did not have in place full Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards — which it does not — would breach the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, signed by the Hawke Government in Rarotonga in 1985 and which came into effect in 1986. Under the Rarotonga Treaty, signatories are not permitted to sell uranium to “non-nuclear weapon states” unless subject to special safeguards required by Article III.1 of the NPT. For the purposes of the NPT, India is a considered a “non-nuclear weapon state”, as it was not one of the five original nuclear powers in 1967. Rothwell’s advice is that India would similarly be considered a “non nuclear weapon state” under the Rarotonga Treaty, and quotes comments from the Howard government which imply as much. Rothwell notes that the Howard government was asked specifically about whether uranium sales to India breached the Rarotonga Treaty and claimed that it did not, “provided that appropriate safeguards are in place”. Any sale of uranium by Australia to India, before it has in place all of the safeguards under Article III of the NPT (which are established by the International Atomic Energy Agency), may therefore place Australia in breach of the Rarotonga Treaty. Under the Treaty, other signatories can complain about Australia’s breach of the treaty and even take the dispute to the International Court of Justice. In practice, however, the real sensitivity on the issue is within Labor itself. The Rarotonga Treaty was supported by Bob Hawke, who even now cites it as an example of his willingness to pursue a foreign policy independent of the United States, and is still cited as one of the key foreign policy achievements of the Hawke years. Julia Gillard, of course, has tried hard to cultivate an association with Hawke, who addressed Labor’s 2010 election campaign launch. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
