On Thursday, 13 February 2020, WINS’ Chairman of the Board, Mr William H Tobey; Executive Director Dr Roger Howsley; and senior staff Ms Rhonda Evans and Mr Pierre Legoux met with the IAEA Director General, Mr Rafael Mariano Grossi, on the margins of the International Conference on Nuclear Security (ICONS) 2020. The Director General was joined by Mark Bassett, Special Assistant to the Director General for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards at the IAEA, and Ewelina Hilger, Special Advisor to the Director General.
The meeting was the first opportunity for WINS to meet with the Director General to discuss our shared commitment to nuclear security and to exchange views on this important topic.
WINS is encouraged by the opening remarks the Director General made during the Ministerial Session of ICONS:
Nuclear security is the responsibility of individual countries. However, the need for international cooperation to guard against nuclear terrorism is universally recognised, as is the role of the IAEA as the inclusive global platform for that cooperation…
We are in a position to integrate and bring together the many valuable – but often scattered – efforts being made throughout the world to guard against nuclear terrorism and other threats, not just by governments, but also by think tanks, NGOs and others. Let us bring all such efforts home to the Agency.
WINS briefed the Director General on our work and recent reports, including the Benchmarking Study between Aviation and Nuclear Security, and the respective roles of the IAEA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as well as WINS’ Special Report on Gender and Nuclear Security.
WINS highlighted a number of key recommendations made in the benchmarking study, including the desirability of developing international norms. which aligns with the Director General’s recent comments that the IAEA should work to transform its nuclear security guidance into mainstreamed norms.
WINS applauds the DG’s stated goals for gender parity among the staff of the Secretariat, in all areas of work of the IAEA including nuclear security. In particular WINS welcomes the DG’s remarks that recognise the efforts of organisations like WINS and our role in promoting gender parity:
I encourage groups representing women in the nuclear field to give us their best ideas about how to achieve gender parity as soon as possible.
WINS looks forward to close cooperation with the Director General and the IAEA Secretariat in the area of nuclear security as we all enter the new decade – with new opportunities and a strengthened resolve to make sustainable progress in the implementation of nuclear security.
