A/HRC/17/39 testing, manufacture, possession and deployment of nuclear weapons are among the greatest threats to the right to life which confront humankind today.15 In its advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons of 8 July 1996, the International Court of Justice unanimously concluded that article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and other international commitments required States to “pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control”. An annual General Assembly resolution welcoming the Court’s conclusion calls for negotiations on a convention prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons globally as the means of meeting the obligation.16 26. Weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, do not only have an instant negative effect on peoples and individuals and the enjoyment and exercise of a variety of their human rights. The development, production, stockpiling and use of weapons of mass destruction or of indiscriminate effect may also imply unforeseeable, uncontrollable and long-term and cross-border effects on the environment threatening the livelihood of succeeding generations. 27. The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques17 states in article 1 that each State party to the Convention undertakes not to engage in military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury to any other State party. 28. The final outcome document of the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development18 concluded that true and lasting peace and security in this interdependent world demanded rapid progress in both disarmament and development as two of the most urgent challenges facing the world today. 29. The Secretary-General has underlined that disarmament contributes to creating a more stable international and national order that is favourable to development and human rights.19 Several initiatives by the United Nations have also addressed the international arms trade and illegal arms trade.20 30. The right to full disarmament must be understood to be part of the right of peoples to live in peace. The right to disarmament should be a component of the right of peoples to peace as well as part of the right to international solidarity.21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 General comment No. 14 on nuclear weapons and the right to life (Art. 6), 1984, para. 4. See for example General Assembly resolution 64/55. It is significant that, at the 2010 Treaty Review Conference, for the first time, the Action Plan on Nuclear Disarmament, in the final document, affirms that “all States need to make special efforts to establish the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons.” It then notes the Five-Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament of the Secretary-General, proposing, inter alia, consideration of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention or agreement on a framework of separate mutually reinforcing instruments, backed by a strong system of verification. The 2010 Review Conference thus acknowledged that elimination of nuclear weapons would require a global institutional and legal system. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1108, p. 151. A/CONF.130/39. See A/59/119. For example, the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, and the work of the Open-ended Working Group towards an Arms Trade Treaty. Colloquium on the New Human Rights, Matias Romero Institute of Diplomatic Studies of the 7