Richard Slade

PhD Thesis Title: The contributions of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to the development of international law: a case study of the Humanitarian Initiative to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons

For the last 70 years, global discourse on the possession and use of nuclear weapons has focused on the security and military imperatives of states. Encouragingly, recent debate about nuclear weapons has been reframed from a security and military perspective, toward a humanitarian perspective on the use of nuclear weapons.

This thesis centres around a case study on the participation of CSOs in the Humanitarian Initiative, their impact in reframing the nuclear weapons debate, and progressing the push for new international norms prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons. It builds upon previous research examining the participation and normative contributions of CSOs at international treaty negotiations and multilateral diplomatic conferences.

I am completing this research with the support of an Australian Post-Graduate Scholarship Award.