 "Photo: Brendan Rimetz/ The Quad News")
 "Photo: Brendan Rimetz/ The Quad News")
With Iran inching closer to building a nuclear bomb, and the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima being this year, it seems to be a fitting time for the debate on nuclear weapons and proliferation to arise.
On Friday Feb. 19, a conference focused on nuclear weapons was held at the Quinnipiac Law School. The conference was hosted and organized by both the Quinnipiac Chapter of the International Human Rights Law Society (IHRLS) and the Albert Schweitzer Institute.
The conference was open to the public and offered a free lunch to all attendees. The various topics discussed drew some interest from the students.
“It was interesting because I didn't understand how in-depth the information on nuclear energy was,” said Brett Herlihy, junior criminal justice major. “I feel a lot of the information is withheld from the public and doesn't get out what was actually revealed in this conference.”
The open conference drew together law school students and undergraduates, as well as a few students from Yale University in New Haven.
“I really enjoyed it,” said Yale senior David Manners-Weber. “It was a delight to hear from a representative of the UN, the undersecretary [Sergio de Queiroz Duarte], a real privilege.”
Even the event planners said they were happy with how the event turned out. Darren Pruslow, a law student and co-president of the QU Chapter of IHRLS, said he was glad to see a decent turn out.
“I thought it was very successful, since it was bringing awareness to the issues of the upcoming treaty negotiations and the review conference,” Pruslow said.
The conference, which featured a number of prominent figures within the nuclear non-proliferation movement, was highlighted with a speech given by Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute .
His keynote speech, which began the conference, addressed the need for nuclear disarmament because of how close it brings the world towards annihilation. Granoff also said that preventing nuclear war through non-proliferation helps prevent both immediate death and destruction but also any long lasting repercussions and damage a nuclear blast may cause.
“We need a universal norm to protect the ocean, to protect the climate,” Granoff said in his speech.
Granoff also made reference to Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who worked towards nuclear disarmament, especially Albert Schweitzer, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Schweitzer was known for being a strong opponent of nuclear weapons and arsenals.
“Even Nobel Laureates have a hard time getting this message out,” Granoff said. “As Albert Schweitzer said, ‘We need reverence for life.’ That is more serious than anything math or science can create.”
After Granoff’s speech, the conference moved into the first of three panels.
The first panel: “What If? Science and Nuclear Weapons,” featured three experts: Dr. Ira Helfand, Hans Kristensen and Nickolas Roth and was moderated by law school student Kara Summa.
Helfand is the co-founder of the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Kristensen is the director of the Nuclear Information Project . And Roth is the program director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability .
Many of the people attending the conference spoke highly of the first panel, especially the presentation made by Helfand in which he described the immediate effects of the nuclear explosion, from the epicenter outwards. It appeared to have left an impression upon some of the people in the room.
“[Helfand] describes in detail what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes somewhere,” said David Ives, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute. “That always kind of gives me a queazy feeling in my stomach and makes me realize that is one of the most important issues, and I hope it doesn’t take a bomb going off to have people pay more attention to this issue.”
The second panel of the day discussed the legal aspects of nuclear armament and nuclear weapons. It was entitled “What Can? A Legal Perspective on the NPT” and it was moderated by Mark Shulman, assistant dean at Pace Law School.
This second group consisted of John Burroughs, the executive director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy , Orde Kittrie, a professor of law at Arizona State University, and Meha Shah, an attorney advisor in the U.S. State Department .
In this second panel, Burroughs brought up a different approach to viewing nuclear weapons and refused to see them as weapons, but instead as “techno -pathogens which should be eradicated.”
His views on eradication of nuclear weapons were reflected by all the other members of the panel. They all agreed that nuclear weapons must be destroyed, but also that the treaties and legal documents involving nuclear arms must be updated and kept relevant to the world we live in today.
The final panel discussed the politics and complex relations between nuclear countries. This panel consisted of Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, the under-secretary general of the United Nations and high representative for disarmament , Adam Mendelson, managing editor for the Middle East Journal , and Granoff.
Mendelson’s presentation explained the complex relationships between the various countries of the Middle East, which has been the source of much of the recent tension involving nuclear arms build up.
After the conference, a number of the panelists reflected upon what was discussed and what really stood out to them.
Helfand said he liked that the conference addressed both the issues that humanity faces with nuclear weapons, but also some of the solutions to those problems.
“We do not need to have nuclear weapons with us forever,” Helfand said. “We built these weapons, we can take them apart. We can achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, and it was great to have a conference that focused on that.”
Granoff also spoke highly of the conference and the importance that a topic such as nuclear non-proliferation should have.
“It was a spectacular conference; substantive, imaginative, creative, dealing with the most critical issue humanity faces,” Granoff said. “We must eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us.”
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