David Davies Memorial Institute

Monday 14 November, 6.00pm, Main Hall, International Politics Building. Rebecca Sharkey, UK Coordinator ICAN, Britain, Trident, and a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Leading expert on nuclear disarmament, Rebecca Sharkey, will deliver her talk on 'Britain, Trident, and a nuclear weapons ban treaty' at 6pm on Monday 14^th of November in the Main Hall of the International Politics Building at Aberystwyth University.

Rebecca Sharkey

Rebecca Sharkey has been the UK Coordinator for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for the past four years. In the past she has been a vocal campaigner against racism, assisted a West Africa peace building programme, raised awareness of the plight of torture survivors, and campaigned for politics and education to be free from religious privilege.

'Britain, Trident, and a nuclear weapons ban treaty'

In the wake of the United Nations General Assembly’s vote on October 27^th 2016, paving the way for negotiations on a new treaty to ban nuclear weapons by March 2017, Rebecca Sharkey argues that “The ban treaty, once in force, will powerfully challenge any notion that possessing nuclear weapons is legitimate for particular countries.

“Countries without nuclear weapons have made it clear they are determined to push ahead for a ban with or without us – it’s up to us if we want to be inside or outside the most exciting and significant development in multilateral nuclear disarmament in decades, on the right or wrong side of history.

“While this progressive new approach is being led by countries without nuclear weapons, nuclear-armed states such as the UK have boycotted disarmament talks and put pressure on smaller states not to back the ban. Even if the UK does not initially sign up to the treaty, it will be subject to the pressures of a changing legal and political international environment that negotiations will bring about.”