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Briefing SINGAPORE CONFERENCE

Dr Rebecca Johnson, one of the women who took part in last month’s historic women’s walk into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates North and South Korea is bringing the Nobel Peace medal to the Scottish Parliament where she will talk about the upcoming summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim Jong Un.

The summit taking place in Korea will have the attention of the world and could be another turning point for progress on global nuclear disarmament. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its contribution to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and is focussing on ensuring that the implications of the treaty are well understood by those across the world who are watching and listening to the diplomats and the heads of state.

In Singapore this week, ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn, who visited the Scottish Parliament in March, will be joined by Akira Kawasaki from the Japanese NGO, Peace Boat, which belongs to ICAN’s core International Steering Group to issue a call for global nuclear disarmament, at a special news conference on Monday, one day ahead of the historic summit. Other leading figures from ICAN will be advocating for it around the world.
ICAN states that the summit should lead to North Korea’s denuclearization, and that it should serve as the first step for the US, and all other nations that possess nuclear weapons, to disarm.

The First Minister of Scotland sent a message to the UN Conference where the Treaty was negotiated in support of a sucessful outcome.Scotland’s opposition to nuclear weapons is seen by many supporters of the TPNW as a significant wedge that can be driven into the UK’s nuclear strategy.

Dr Rebecca Johnson is the founding president of ICAN in Geneva and serves on ICAN’s International Steering Group. She is the Director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy In addition to the Women Crossing the DMZ, she participated in meetings in Seoul in early April as a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials and then spent 2 weeks at the UN in Geneva attending the NPT meeting held in May.

She is an expert on nuclear testing, authored the definitive book on how the CTBT was achieved, “Unfinished Business” and was an official scientific observer at on site inspection exercises at the former Soviet test site in Kazakhstan. She was senior advisor to Dr Hans Blix on the International WMD Commission, 2004-06, and holds a PhD in multilateral diplomacy and treaty-making. In addition to her academic and diplomatic roles, Rebecca is a former Greenham woman and spent a year in Scotland as part of the Faslane365 campaign.

Along with campaigners from Korea, Russia, France, the US, the Netherlands, Israel, Iran and Germany, she will be in Scotland at Scottish CND’s Nae Nukes Rally at Faslane on the 22nd September to amplify Scotland’s challenge to the UK Government to get on board with the TPNW.

To arrange an interview with Dr Johnson, please call Janet Fenton 07795594573