The Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP Weapons) presents: 

A Draft Framework for a Treaty on General and Complete Disarmament

The Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP Weapons) presents a Draft Framework for a Treaty on General and Complete Disarmament. This is a specific proposal to eliminate Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and control Large Weapons, Small Arms and Light Weapons, globally. Developed by former UN and government officials, as well as researchers in the field, this is a draft approach that we offer to the international community as a basis for discussions towards negotiating an agreement on comprehensive disarmament, aiming to fill in the gaps between existing disarmament treaties.

SCRAP Weapons’ proposal on General and Complete Disarmament (GCD) emphasises the need to focus not only on WMDs, but also on conventional weapons and Confidence and Security-Building Measures (CSBMs). This can help bypass real and diplomatic obstacles to nuclear disarmament. Many countries that seek or possess nuclear weapons have regional security concerns which stem from conventional weapons threats. Ignoring this dimension of conventional weapons damages the credibility of nuclear only disarmament campaigns.
The goal of GCD has been identified and agreed to in several multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements, in numerous United Nations General Assembly Resolutions since 1959, and in the consensus Final Document of the General Assembly’s First Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. In particular, GCD is embedded in Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in the Treaty of Tlatelolco (Latin America and the Caribbean, 1967); the Sea-Bed Treaty (1971); the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC, 1975); the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT, 1996); the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC, 1997); the Bangkok Treaty (Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, 1997); the Pelindaba Treaty (African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, 2009); the Semipalatinsk Treaty (Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, 2009); and in the Preamble of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017). 

A key element of the Draft Framework for a Treaty is that it builds on and unifies tried and tested disarmament achievements. This entirely comprises extracts from previously agreed and successfully implemented international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation agreements, documenting in one place measures that have already worked in different contexts. This framework is therefore a compilation of past best practices for global application, even where some of them are no longer in operation, and can be used as a reference point to inspire and inform future actions.

In particular, the Draft Framework includes provisions drawn from the operative parts of the bilateral Soviet-US Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and Russia-US Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for the elimination of strategic, intermediate-range, shorter-range and short range missiles. It also builds on the arrangements of regional WMD free zones treaties, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) arms control ‘Vienna document’, and other multilateral agreements referring to cluster munitions, landmines, and other small military weapons.

The Framework includes a verification regime based on the UN Security Council-led inspections in Iraq in the 1990s and early 2000s. The UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Action Team identified and oversaw the elimination of Iraq’s illicit nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles between 1991-1997, and developed innovative monitoring systems for this. 

The Draft Framework also invokes the importance of the peaceful settlement of disputes between States laid out in Article 33 of the UN Charter, and recognises the right of States to self-defence under Article 51 of the Charter.

When it comes to GCD we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Although some of the treaties are no longer operational, many of their components can be used to rebuild a global architecture. The wheels therefore have already been built. The Draft Framework contains all the basic elements of an international legally-binding arrangement on General and Complete Disarmament and is open for broad international accession.

Our purpose is not to substitute the work of states, but to reassure that GCD should not be regarded as a distant dream, and that with political will it can become a reality.

Following is an overview of the Draft Framework for Treaty on General and Complete Disarmament:

The Treaty provides a framework for all participatory countries to immediately begin disarmament, including how states will be held to their commitments of disposal or reduction techniques. The processes include all weapons systems for land, air or sea in addition to armed drones, autonomous weapons, and direct fire weapons. This draft purposefully does not provide schedules, limits, or liabilities. Instead, it provides possible implementations drawing on existing treaties. We encourage policy makers and civil society to continue to negotiate and build on this draft. The articles of the Draft Framework for a Treaty are briefly outlined below.

Article 1: General Obligations
● State Party Overall Agreements

Article 2: Accounting and Defining Types of Weapons Systems
● The Rules of Accounting and Definitions of Types of weapons and supporting technologies are based on the provisions of several agreements, including OSCE, START, INF,, CWC (Chemical Weapons Convention), BWC (Biological Weapons Convention), ATT (Arms Trade Treaty), and CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty). 

Article 3: Weapons and Supporting Technology Limitations
● Limitations on number of weapons and supporting technology that are subject to an agreement.

Article 4: Exchange of Information Relating to Obligations
● Follows the provisions established in INF, Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), START, Inter-American Convention on Transparency, Kinshasa Convention, and regional Nuclear Weapons Free Zone agreements, as well as the requirements established by UNSCR 687, UNSCOM, UNMOVIC and the IAEA team on effective inspection and verification of Weapons of Mass Destruction disarmament in Iraq between 1991 and 2003.

Article 5: Elimination procedures
● Following the procedures laid out in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (1990).

Article 6: Prohibition of Direct and Indirect Transfers to Non-State Parties
● All parties in this Treaty are expressly forbidden from transferring physical or indirect systems to non-state actors.

Article 7: Verification of Rules of Compliance
● Building on the verification provisions of the aforementioned agreements. In particular, the Framework envisions the Universal Application of the Effective Inspection and Verification of Weapons of Mass Destruction Disarmament carried out on behalf of the United Nations Security Council in Iraq between 1991 and 2003. This Arrangement will learn and apply lessons from UNSCR 687, UNSCOM, UNMOVIC and the IAEA Action Team.

Article 8: Definitions
● Definitions are based on the relevant paragraphs of the embedded treaties

Article 9: Mechanism of Implementation of the Arrangement
● Subject to participating party agreements

Article 10: Duration and Withdrawal
● The agreement is of an unlimited duration

Article 11: Amendments, Signature, Accession, Ratification, Entry into Force, Reservations, Depositary, Authentic Texts.