This thesis analyses how, over ten years from 1986-96, a worldwide network of peace activists, doctors and lawyers evolved the World Court Project (WCP), an unprecedented citizens’ movement which helped to persuade the UN to request the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the legal status of nuclear weapons. After the largest participation by governments in a case, the ICJ confirmed that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be illegal.
Download the thesis: http://legacy.disarmsecure.org/Dewes%20PhD%20Thesis.pdf
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Good Faith Negotiations Leading to the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: Request for an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, May 2009. (
IALANA, in conjunction with the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) led World Court Project, a world-wide campaign that resulted in an