Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020

International News

Members of the United Nations ratified the agreement to ban nuclear weapons was approved by 122 nations at the General Assembly in 2017.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, declaring this was “a new chapter for nuclear disarmament. Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned.”

One survivor of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima, Setsuko Thurlow, told ICAN that she had committed her whole life to abolition: “I have nothing but gratitude for all who have worked for the success of our treaty,” she said.

The treaty was reached a day after the island nations of Jamaica and Nauru submitted their ratifications meaning that in 90 days, the treaty will become active, banning nuclear weapons just over 75 years after they were first used at the end of World War II.

“Entry into force is a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this Treaty,” António Guterres, the UN chief in his statement said.

Guterres described the entry into force as “the culmination of a worldwide movement to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.”

So far, the main nuclear powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and France, have not signed the accord.

The treaty declares that the countries ratifying it must “never under any circumstance develop, test, produce, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”

Adopted on July 7, 2017 at a UN conference in New York, the Treaty represented the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament in two decades.

Speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters in early October after being announced winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, ICAN chief Beatrice Fihn said that a “new generation” of campaigners had come of age, “people who grew up after the Cold War and don’t understand why we still have the (nuclear) weapons.”

Once the treaty is in force, all States’ parties will need to implement all of their positive obligations under the treaty and abide by its prohibitions, ICAN said in its statements.




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