25 May 2016 —The Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations and Other International Organization in Geneva lent its voice to a number of states calling for a recommendation to start negotiations on a nuclear weapons ban treaty during the Second Session of the Open Ended Working Group on taking forward multilateral disarmament negotiations (OEWG).

“The Philippines believes that the safety and security of the world can only be achieved through the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction... work on a treaty that will ban and prohibit the possession, use or threat of use, acquisition, development and testing of nuclear weapons is the most ideal and correct action,”Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations said in her Statement.

The Second Session of the OEWG was held in Geneva from May 02 to 04 May and from May 09 to 13. The substantive sessions included discussions on measures to reduce and eliminate the risk of accidental, mistaken, unauthorized or intentional nuclear weapon detonations; transparency measure related to the risks associated with existing nuclear weapons; additional measures to increase awareness and understanding of the complexity of and interrelationship between the wide range of humanitarian consequences that would result from any nuclear detonation; essential elements that could form part of effective legal measures, legal provisions and norms that will need to be concluded to attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons; and possible pathways to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations

The OEWG aims to substantively address concrete effective legal measures, legal provisions and norms that would need to be concluded to attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons and to substantively address recommendations on other measures that could contribute to taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The Philippines is one of the 23 Countries who co-sponsored the UNGA First Committee Resolution on Taking Forward Multilateral Disarmament Negotiations, pursuant to which the General Assembly decided to convene the OEWG. The first session of the OEWG was held in February 2016. The third and concluding session is scheduled in August 2016. END