Nuclear has ratified an international treaty banning nuclear weapons, the UN said, adding that the symbolic text is allowed to be implemented after 90 days, despite the historic date.
While the nuclear powers have not signed the treaty, activists who have pushed for its implementation hope it will prove more than symbolic and will gradually affect the barrier.
Honduras became the 50th country to ratify.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “the culmination of a global movement to draw attention to the devastating humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons,” his spokesman said in a statement.
“It represents a meaningful commitment to the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, the highest priority of the United Nations disarmament.”
NGOs have also welcomed the news, including the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICON), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition for its key role in bringing the message.
“Honduras has just ratified the treaty as the 50th state, entered into force and made history,” Ek announced.
Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement: “Today is a day of victory for humanity, and a promise of a secure future.”
The treaty was ratified by the countries on the 75th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, marked in August.
These include Nigeria, Malaysia, Ireland, Malta and Tuvalu. Thailand, Mexico, South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Vietnam and the Vatican are among the countries that have already ratified it.
The UN said the treaty would take effect on January 22, 2021.
Nuclear-armed states, including the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia, have not signed the treaty.
The U.S. has written a letter to the joint signatories saying the Trump administration believes they have made a “strategic mistake” and has reaffirmed that they can ratify.
The letter, obtained by the Associated Press, said that the five core nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – and the US NATO allies have united in their opposition to the possible outcome of the treaty.
Campaigners, however, hope that the treaty will have the same effect on past and cluster weapons as previous international treaties, stigmatize their stocking and use, and change the behavior of non-signatories in those countries as well.
Eiken said in a statement that he expects “companies to stop producing nuclear weapons and financial institutions to prevent them from investing in companies that make nuclear weapons.”
Coalition executive director Beatrice Fehn called it “a new chapter in nuclear disarmament.”
“Decades of activism have achieved what many have said was impossible: there is a ban on nuclear weapons.”
Saying his country played a “crucial role” with others, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that it was “an important step towards our goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Nuclear armed states argue that their arsenal acts as a deterrent and say they are committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Separately, Russia and the US are trying to break the stalemate in the long-running negotiations aimed at boosting the nuclear arms deal between them.
The two sides have struggled to find a common ground on the fate of the new TT treaty, which is limited to 1,550 deployed weapons but is due to expire next February.
When the U.S. As China seeks to renegotiate a deal to include and cover new types of weapons, Russia is ready to extend the deal for five years without any new conditions – and each side has repeatedly rebuffed the other’s proposals.
Agency with France-Press and Associated Press
