A Nobel Effort: Parliamentary call for common security and nuclear disarmament

Presentation by Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
to the 2026 NPT Review Conference.
May 1, 2026
United Nations, New York
DELIVERED BY BILL KIDD MSP, PNND CO-PRESIDENT

Your Excellencies,
We are meeting at the United Nations in New York at a time of devastating armed conflicts,
an erosion of multilateralism and the rule of law, a renewed nuclear arms race, increased
risks and specific threats to use nuclear weapons, increasingly severe climate-change induced
disasters and a looming existential threat to humanity from high levels of Green House Gas
emissions.
I am addressing this Review Conference in my role as a Co-President of Parliamentarians for
Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, a network of parliamentarians representing
citizens of nations around the world with their concerns over the dangers presented by
nuclear weapons.

I have spent 19 years as a Member of the Scottish Parliament working for the removal of
Trident nuclear weapons from the land and waters of Scotland – where the entire nuclear
arsenal of the United Kingdom is based just 30 miles from the homes of a half of the Scottish
Population.
Parliamentarians are active in their national assemblies, and through organizations like the
Inter-Parliamentary Union and PNND to address these issues. We appeal to you as
representatives of governments to do likewise.
Together, we need to elevate diplomacy, cooperative leadership, common security and the
rule of law in order to prevent nuclear war, resolve international conflicts peacefully, protect
the climate for current and future generations and set in motion concrete processes to
achieve the peace and security of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

We need to strengthen the roles of the UN General Assembly, International Court of Justice
and International Criminal Court to prevent – and build accountability for – acts of aggression.
And we need to support the establishment of additional nuclear-weapon-free zones,
especially in the Middle East.
In these ways we can replace the reliance on nuclear deterrence with reliance on common
security.

In 2024, 70 parliamentarians from 34 legislatures endorsed the appeal Turn Back the
Doomsday Clock which was presented to the NPT Prep Com in Geneva. It includes nine
concrete recommendations for achieving the peace and security of a nuclear weapon free
world – a world based on the common security of the UN Charter, not the threat or use of
force. You can view these recommendations in the written version of our statement today.
One immediate step not included in our 2024 appeal, is to end the war by US and Israel
against Iran through common security. Newsweek recently shared an article by PNND Council
Member, Jonathan Granoff, titled War Will Not Stop Iran’s Nuclear Threat, This Could.

It advocates making comprehensive inspection safeguards, much like the JCPOA and the
Chemical Weapons Convention, apply to all non-nuclear weapons states parties to the NPT,
not just Iran. This would make the world safer, stop the next North Korea, and allow both the
USA and Iran to rightfully claim a victory for the world. It would also strengthen the
legitimacy of the NPT regime by reinforcing its nonproliferation pillar. Would it per se
advance disarmament? No, but stopping a war and saving the unique legal instrument that
obligates the P5 to achieve nuclear disarmament is worth our efforts.
PNND highlights that 2026 is the 125th anniversary of the first Nobel Peace Prize, which was
jointly awarded to Henri Dunant (Switzerland) for founding the International Committee of
the Red Cross and to Frédéric Passy (France) for co-founding the Inter-Parliamentary
Union and for being instrumental in the establishment of the first international tribunal –
the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The vision and leadership of these Nobel Laureates can
help inspire us today.
We cordially invite you to a side-event on May 6 organised by PNND and the InterParliamentary Union entitled A Nobel Effort: The Roles and Actions of Parliamentarians to
support Diplomacy, Disarmament and International Humanitarian Law where we will discuss
these ideas in more depth.