On International Day, UN renews call for global elimination of nuclear weapons

26 September 2016 – The world faces growing nuclear dangers and tensions, yet progress in multilateral nuclear disarmament has come to a “standstill,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today, reiterating a call for complete global nuclear disarmament as the international community marks the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

“Let us pledge to work for the total elimination of nuclear weapons with urgency and a sense of collective purpose. Our very survival depends upon it,” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark the Day, observed annually on 26 September.

Noting that nuclear disarmament is one of the founding principles of the UN, the Secretary-General said that it was also the objective of the first General Assembly resolution.

“Disarmament is in our DNA,” he stated, adding that he has been proud to advance the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, such as by launching, in 2008, a Five Point Proposal on Nuclear Disarmament to spur Member States to greater action. 

A landmark international treaty opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970, and was extended indefinitely on 11 May 1995. Its objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. It represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.

“There are many paths to a world free of nuclear weapons. What matters is that all States act now, without delay, to fulfil their disarmament and non-proliferation commitments,” the Secretary-General emphasized.

The Treaty will enter into force 180 days after the date of deposit of the instruments of ratification by all States listed in its Annex 2. Of the 44 States listed in Annex 2, 41 have signed and 36 have both signed and ratified the Treaty, including several nuclear weapons States.

Of the 44 States included in Annex 2, all have signed with the exceptions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan. Five of the 44 Annex 2 States have signed but not ratified the Treaty: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States.

The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons was established by the UN General Assembly in 2013 in a resolution calling for the “urgent commencement of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament of a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons to prohibit their possession, development, production, acquisition, testing, stockpiling, transfer and use or threat of use, and to provide for their destruction.”- Read More
On International Day, UN renews call for global elimination of nuclear weapons

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