Historic New Anti-Nuclear Treaty Legitimizes the Fight for Disarmament Aloysio Nunes Ferreira - Mail & Guardian
go to original August 3, 2017

Warning sounded of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea (Al Jazeera English)

The international community took a historic step on July 7, when it adopted the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, after a negotiating process that would not have been possible without the leadership of Brazil, South Africa, Austria, Ireland, Mexico and Nigeria.

These countries were joined by a great majority of the UN member states, which understood the humanitarian dimension of the initiative and actively participated in the negotiating conference with constructive spirit and responsibility, to fill an unacceptable legal gap in the field of disarmament.

Legally binding instruments had already banned chemical and bacteriological weapons. But nuclear weapons, capable of destroying life on the planet, lacked a prohibition treaty. This gap, which we now begin to fill, will cease to exist when the instrument reaches the required 50 ratifications for its entry into force.

The agreement was a victory for the UN and multilateralism, according to which dialogue among states is the most adequate and legitimate way to find solutions to global problems. The instrument draws on previous conferences, which helped raise awareness among governments and society of the effect of detonating a nuclear weapon, the indiscriminate destruction that is inconsistent with the rules of humanitarian law that govern the way states conduct hostilities and with the very notion of human dignity.

Despite resistance from states with nuclear weapons, it was possible to adopt a treaty that reflects the aspirations of most of the international community: to ban the existence of such weapons.

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