Iraq - CND’s Role

Why did CND oppose war with Iraq?


War is not an effective way of dealing with weapons of mass destruction. CND believes that the possession or use of weapons of mass destruction cannot be justified in any circumstances. The most effective way of dealing with weapons of mass destruction is to strengthen the international treaties on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
For a full statement see the national CND web site here.
A CND briefing from October 2003, assessing the war and its aftermath, is here.

What has CND Done?


Nottingham CND and its members have been fully involved in the Nottingham Stop the War Coalition and local anti-war actions - see the Reports page for more details.

Nationally, CND has been fully involved in organising or supporting all the major protest marches and rallies together with the National Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain – including, of course, the biggest ever protest march on February 15th.

CND obtained a legal opinion from Matrix Churchill chambers that UN resolution 1441 does not authorise military action against Iraq and took the government to court, challenging the the legality of its decision to go to war. In a historic decision the court limited CND’s liability to pay the government’s costs. But CND lost as the judges ruled that the court had no power to declare the true interpretation of resolution 1441. More details here

CND and others are selling
White Ribbons for Peace to raise money for a legal fund to take members of the government to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for War Crimes. Tony Blair, Geoff Hoon and Jack Straw have all been served with papers informing them of the consequences of war on Iraq. They will be investigated by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court if anctions sanctioned by them breach international humanitarian law. This action is being supported by organisations such as CND, Greenpeace, Campaign Against the Arrms Trade and the Green Party as well as individual campaigners like Mark Thomas. More details here

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