AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT INITIATIVE

That this House congratulates the Austrian government on its call to all states to identify and pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons and its pledge to co-operate with all stakeholders to achieve this goal; notes that this pledge was made at the end of the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons held in Vienna on 8-9 December 2014 and attended by 157 states including the UK; applauds the contribution of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to the conference and the participation of civil society led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; agrees that no national or international response capacity exists that would adequately respond to the human suffering and humanitarian harm that would result from a nuclear weapon explosion in a populated area; supports the states led by Austria now calling for work to begin on crafting a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons; and urges the UK Government to participate fully in this new and multilateral initiative.