As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories and UN officials said Honduras’s 50th ratification had been received.
The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries had ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but with strong opposition from the United States and other powers. nuclear important.
As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories and UN officials said Honduras’s 50th ratification had been received.
This moment marked 75 years since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the founding of the UN that made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone, said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Nobel Laureate de la Paz 2017. winning coalition whose work helped spearhead the nuclear ban treaty.
The 50 countries that ratify this Treaty are showing true leadership by establishing a new international standard that nuclear weapons are not only immoral but illegal.
The 50th ratification came on the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the UN Charter that officially established the United Nations and is celebrated as UN Day.
The United Nations was formed to promote peace with the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons, Fihn said.
This treaty is the UN at its best, working closely with civil society to bring democracy to disarmament.
The United States had written to the signatories of the treaty saying the Trump administration believes they made a strategic mistake and urged them to rescind its ratification.
The letter from the United States, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the original five nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France) and the United States’ allies in NATO are united in our opposition to the possible repercussions. of the treaty.
It says the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, known as TPNW, turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous for the half-century-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global efforts. non-proliferation.
The TPNW is and will continue to be divisive in the international community and risks further deepening divisions in existing non-proliferation and disarmament fora that offer the only realistic prospect of consensus-based progress, the letter said.
It would be regrettable if the TPNW were to be allowed to derail our ability to work together to address pressing proliferation.
Fihn has emphasized that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is about preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eliminating nuclear weapons, and this treaty implements it. There is no way you can undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. It is the ultimate goal of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The NPT sought to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the original five weapon powers. It requires that non-nuclear signatory nations not seek atomic weapons in exchange for the commitment of the five powers to move towards nuclear disarmament and guarantee non-nuclear states access to peaceful nuclear technology to produce energy.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has supported the nuclear weapons ban treaty, calling it a very welcome initiative.
It’s clear to me that we’ll only be completely safe in relation to nuclear weapons the day nuclear weapons no longer exist, he said in an interview Wednesday with the AP.
We know it is not easy. We know that there are many obstacles.
He expressed hope that a number of important initiatives, including the US-Russia talks on renewing the New Start Treaty limiting deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers and the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of the Next year, they converge in the same direction, and the ultimate goal must be to have a world without nuclear weapons.
The treaty was approved by the 193-member UN General Assembly on July 7, 2017 by a vote of 122 in favor, the Netherlands opposed and Singapore abstained. Among the countries that voted in favor was Iran. The five nuclear powers and four other countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons – India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – boycotted the treaty negotiations and vote, along with many of their allies.
Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 who has been an ardent supporter of the treaty, said: When I learned that we had reached our 50th ratification, I could not stand up.
I stayed in my chair and put my head in my hands and cried tears of joy, he said in a statement.
I have committed my life to the abolition of nuclear weapons. I have nothing but gratitude for all who have worked for the success of our treaty.
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