Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference opening address [UN SG] News
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference opening address [UN SG]

Opening address to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, May 2, 2005 [saying that new threats and technology have made sections of the 1970 treaty outdated, and urging the 188-states party to the treaty to act in the face of these new realities]. Excerpt:

The plain fact is that the regime has not kept pace with the march of technology and globalization, and developments of many kinds in recent years have placed it under great stress. International regimes do not fail because of one breach, however serious or unacceptable. They fail when many breaches pile one on top of the other, to the point where the gap between promise and performance becomes unbridgeable. As you meet to review the NPT, your urgent task is to narrow that gap.

Read the full text of Annan's speech. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Mao Zedong widow sentenced to death in China

On January 25, 1981, Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, was sentenced to death by a special court in China. The charges stemmed primarily from Jiang's role in the Cultural Revolution. Saying "I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite," Qing unsuccessfully argued that she was merely acting at the direction of her late husband, who had died five years earlier. In 1983, Jiang's sentence was commuted to life in prison so that she would have "time to repent." Her official trial documents have still not been released.

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