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Balkenende calls for nuclear tribunal in The Hague

News item | 13-04-2010

At a recent international nuclear summit, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for a new court or tribunal to prosecute countries that provide nuclear material to terrorists.

'As the legal capital of the world, The Hague would be an excellent location for such an institution,' Mr Balkenende said.

He was speaking at the dinner held on 12 April 2010 as part of the two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C. A new treaty would be required to provide the legal basis for any new court or tribunal.

President Obama of the United States invited more than forty countries to the summit with the aim of reaching clear agreements on securing stocks of nuclear material to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands.

'Terrorists or criminals with a nuclear bomb is a nightmare scenario,' Mr Balkenende said, adding that the summit should result in greater cooperation, better sharing of data and technology, and greater powers for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Countries also need to be more aware that 'this is a major problem'.

Relevant

The prime minister stressed that the summit has particular relevance for the Netherlands, given the country's nuclear industry, nuclear power stations and its mainports at Rotterdam and Schiphol.

The Netherlands has also developed considerable expertise in investigating and combating smuggling of nuclear material, Mr Balkenende said. The Netherlands Forensic Institute has developed dedicated technologies for this purpose.

Context

According to the prime minister, the summit represents one element in a wider context. On 8 April, President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia signed the new START treaty aimed at reducing the number of existing nuclear weapons.

In May 2010, the UN's review conference on non-proliferation will be held in New York. In addition, President Obama has presented a new strategy (the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review) for reducing the risk of nuclear weapons actually being used.