UN Open Ended Working Group – win a trip to Geneva!

Send us your idea for an action to support the new UN nuclear disarmament process and win a trip to Geneva to participate in the official deliberations!

Nuclear disarmament talks have been blocked for decades. But now there is an opening that could make a difference!

The United Nations has decided to re-establish an Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. It will hold its substantive sessions in Geneva in February, May and August 2016 (with an organisational meeting on January 28). The sessions will be open to all governments as well as representatives of civil society.

The OEWG follows-on from a similar one in 2013 that helped outline and develop various options for nuclear disarmament negotiations. The aim of the 2016 OEWG is to start substantive work on the most promising options in order to pave the way for actual negotiations.

The contest
Send us an email with your idea for an inspiring campaign or social media action to support the OEWG by February 5!

The campaign action should be one that:

  • catches peoples’ attention through an interesting concept, action, slogan or image;
  • can engage people all over the world from different cultures and countries;
  • is relevant for multiple constituencies including youth, parliamentarians, mayors, religious communities/leaders, environmentalists, peace and disarmament advocates…
  • will have the potential to influence a range of governments including those from countries possessing nuclear weapons, those under extended nuclear deterrence relationships (the ‘nuclear umbrella’ countries) and the non-nuclear countries.

We are happy to receive unworked action ideas, in which case we may ask follow-up questions about the idea before we make a final decision on the winner.

If your proposal is chosen, we will turn it into a global campaign action (with your guidance). UNFOLD ZERO will then bring you to Geneva to participate in the May session of the OEWG and to present the outcome of the campaign.

In 2013 civil society supported the OEWG by 'opening the door' to a nuclear weapon free world - in schools, universities, workplaces, parliaments, city halls, parks, nuclear weapons facilities etc.
In 2013 civil society supported the OEWG by ‘opening the door’ to a nuclear weapon free world – in schools, universities, workplaces, parliaments, city halls, parks, nuclear weapons facilities etc.

Examples of previous successful campaigns

Civil society was actively engaged in the 2013 OEWG, including through the Open the Door Campaign, out of which UNFOLD ZERO was established. Activists all over the world took photos, videos and drawings/paintings of themselves and colleagues ‘opening the door to a nuclear weapon free world’. Campaign representatives presented these to the delegates in Geneva to encourage them to deliberate in good faith.

In 2015, civil society around the world engaged actively in the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference through Global Wave 2015. Individuals and organisations organized creative ways to ‘wave goodbye to nuclear weapons’ from locations around the world, and the waves were presented to the delegates at the UN in New York at a plenary session of the conference, as well as by tweeter, facebook, individual meetings with delegates and a side-event.

Contact us at info@unfoldzero.org for more information or to submit your campaign action idea.Nike