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Nuclear disarmament : from ‘open-ended talks’ to ratification and beyond

Now the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is due to become international law, nuclear powers need to engage constructively on nuclear disarmament.

By Rebecca Johnson

Nuclear disarmament : from ‘open-ended talks’ to ratification and beyond — Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez, President of the UN Conference that negotiated the Treaty in 2017 | Ralf/ICAN

Published: October 28, 2020, 1:13 pm

From the moment two atomic bombs killed two hundred thousand people in two split seconds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy-five years ago, nuclear weapons have caused nightmares, environmental contamination, self-serving myths and abuses of power.

What will change now that the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is on the threshold of making nuclear weapons internationally illegal?

It is significant that the 90 day countdown to the legal entry into force of this multilateral nuclear disarmament Treaty was triggered by three nations (Honduras, Jamaica and Nauru) from the Global South. Symbolic too, that this occurred in time for the 50th ratification to be deposited with the UN Secretary General on 24 October, the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations .

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