Implementing a Korea–Japan Nuclear‐Weapon‐Free Zone: Precedents, Legal Forms, Governance, Scope, Domain, Verification, Compliance and Regional Benefits
To assess the possibility of a future denuclearized Korean peninsula it is important to consider not only US and allied security interests, but also North Korean underlying security concerns. However, beyond the North–South conflict on the Korean peninsula, there is also a longer-term problem of Korean–Japanese relations. Both Japan and South Korea have the capacity to rapidly develop and acquire nuclear weapons. North Korean nuclear acquisition could well provide the rationale for either or both to acquire nuclear weapons. In the Northeast Asian region there is already a lengthy history of denuclearization proposals and even agreements. While the focus of previous proposals had concentrated on the Korean peninsula itself, an alternative way forward would be the initial establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) between Japan and South Korea, with North Korea encouraged to join at a later date. The negotiation of a Korea–Japan NWFZ would serve to confirm and guarantee the current non-nuclear-weapon status of South Korea and Japan, while acting as an important confidence-building step to address North Korea's underlying security concerns and enable it to subsequently join the NWFZ. Internationally, the commitment of the US Obama administration to a reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, the recent unanimous final document of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference calling for expansion of NWFZs, and the greater openness of the USA and other nuclear powers to NWFZ establishment in areas of regional conflict, suggest that we now have a new window of opportunity for denuclearization of Northeast Asia.
Regions That Say No: Precedents and Precursors for Denuclearizing Northeast Asia
Regional nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs) groups of countries which have signed up to legally-binding, internationally-recognized, treaties prohibiting the development, acquisition, or stationing, of nuclear weapons anywhere in their territory are far from a new idea. They have been around since the 1950s and 1960s when the first such zones were created (Antarctic Treaty 1959, Tlatelolco Latin American NWFZ Treaty 1967). Further zones were established in the mid1980s (South Pacific Rarotonga Treaty, 1985); the mid-1990s (Southeast Asia Bangkok Treaty, 1995, African Pelindaba Treaty, 1996); and the mid-2000s (Central Asian Semipalatinsk Treaty 2006).
Coalition for the International Criminal Court Questionnaire to Candidates for the Position of Registrar of the International Criminal Court Conscious of the critical importance of the Registrar of the ICC
As an independent judicial institution in the emerging international justice system, the International Criminal Court will:  Fairly, effectively and impartially investigate, prosecute and conduct trials of the most serious crimes;  Act transparently and efficiently; and  Contribute to long lasting respect for and enforcement of international criminal justice, to the prevention of crime and to the fight against impunity