"Legal Issues in Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Global Security"

Mr. Mohammed El Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will speak on the legal aspects of nuclear non-proliferation and global security in a public address at Stanford Law School.

As head of the IAEA, El Baradei oversees international inspections enforcing provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and related arms control agreements. Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in spring 2003, El Baradei and Hans Blix, former chief of U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the IAEA group charged with carrying out U.N. Security Council-mandated inspections in Iraq, reported progress with the inspections, which had been resumed in November 2002. As IAEA inspectors evacuated from Iraq on March 19, 2003, El Baradei continued to urge completion of the U.N. Security Council inspection process.

Recently, the IAEA reported to the United Nations Security Council that up until early 2004, equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons were methodically looted from facilities that, prior to the war, were being closely monitored by the IAEA. The facilities were part of Iraq's covert nuclear weapons program, which the IAEA detected in 1991 and dismantled by 1998. Now, the IAEA reports, entire facilities have vanished from satellite photos: warehouses have been emptied, and buildings taken down and potentially packed-up and sold to countries or militants pursuing nuclear weapons development.

IAEA reprimands of Iran have made recent headlines, too, with the agency's board of governors scheduled to revisit Iran's compliance with NPT provisions shortly after El Baradei's visit to Stanford. On Sept. 13, 2004, the IAEA issued a deadline of Nov. 25 for Iran to report fully on its nuclear program. For more than a year, the U.S. has advocated referral of Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, after inspections revealed evidence of covert Iranian nuclear research.

Before assuming the IAEA's top job on Dec. 1, 1997, El Baradei held a number of high-level policy positions, including that of IAEA legal adviser. A diplomat and scholar, El Baradei is closely familiar with the work of international organizations, particularly in the fields of international peace, security and law.