Nukes-free world?

Here comes another treaty in pursuit of a pipedream. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons i.e. TPNW — coming into force on January 22, 2021 after its adoption by the UN on July 7, 2017 — adds to a number of treaties and conventions aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation and testing, and promoting progress on nuclear disarmament, ultimately achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.

Unlike the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 which contains only partial prohibitions, and nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties which prohibit nuclear weapons only within certain geographical regions, the TPNW is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal of getting them eliminated completely.

The TPNW is different from the rest as it makes nuclear weapons illegal. The campaigners call it a milestone achievement even though it is marred by the lack of signatures from the world’s major nuclear powers. Opened for signature on September 20, 2017, the treaty is either ratified or acceded to by 51 countries of the world. The campaigners say that states ratifying or acceding to the treaty “would either have to destroy their nuclear weapons before joining the Treaty, or commit to doing so according to a ‘legally binding, time-bound plan’ that will eliminate their nuclear weapon programme in a verifiable and irreversible way.”

However, for this to happen, the nuclear weapons possessors will have to join the TPNW, which they have not yet done. For its part, Pakistan believes that the agreement does not constitute a part of conventional international law, and the country, therefore, does not consider itself bound by any of its obligations. The treaty was negotiated “outside the established UN disarmament negotiating forums”, says the Foreign Office in an official response last week after the treaty had come into force.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2021.

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