UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries ratified a UN nuclear weapons ban treaty that activated their access to force in 90 days, a measure welcomed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed through the United States and the primary government.
On Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories and the United Nations stated that ratification had been received from Honduras.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated all 50 states and praised the “instrumental work” of civil society to facilitate negotiations and boost ratification, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The UN leader said the entry into force of the treaty on 22 January resulted in a motion “aimed at drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and “is a tribute to survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of them who have advocated for this treaty,” he said,
Guterres said the treaty “represents a significant commitment to the overall removal of nuclear weapons, which remains the United Nations disarmament priority,” Dujarric said.
Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition whose paintings helped lead the Nuclear Ban Treaty, said: “This moment has come years since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the UN base that has made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone.
“The 50 countries that ratify this Treaty show genuine leadership in a new popular foreigner in which nuclear weapons are not only immoral but also illegal,” he said.
The fiftieth ratification took place on the anniversary of the ratification of the Charter of the United Nations, which officially established the United Nations and is celebrated as United Nations Day.
“The United Nations was created to promote peace with the aim of abolishing nuclear weapons,” Fihn said. “This treaty is the UN in its most productive form, working hard with civil society to bring democracy into disarmament. “
The treaty requires all countries that have ratified it “never, under any circumstances, to expand the Array. It also prohibits any movement or use of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices – and the risk of such weapons – and obliges the parties to advertise the treaty to other countries.
Once it goes into effect, all countries that have ratified it will go through those requirements.
The United States had written to the signatories of the treaty that Trump’s leadership believed he had made a “strategic mistake” and urged them to cancel their ratification.
The letter from the United States, received through The Associated Press, said that the original five nuclear powers (The United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France) and NATO’s U. S. allies “are united in our opposition to the repercussions” of the treaty.
He says the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, known as TPNW, “invests time in verification and disarmament and is dangerous” for the half-century-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of global non-proliferation efforts.
“TPNW is and will continue to be a dividing factor in foreign network paintings and the dangers that reinforce divisions in existing non-proliferation and disarmament forums that offer a realistic perspective on consensus-based progress,” the letter says. “It would be unfortunate if the TPNW was allowed to derail our ability to paint in combination to fight urgent proliferation. “
Fihn under pressure that “the Non-Proliferation Treaty aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and eliminate nuclear weapons, and this treaty implements it. It is to undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. This is the ultimate purpose of the Non-Proliferation Treaty”.
The NPT was intended to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the original five powers and obliges non-nuclear signatory countries not to pursue atomic weapons in exchange for the five powers’ commitment to move towards nuclear disarmament and to ensure that non-nuclear states do not pursue non-violent nuclear generation to produce energy.
Rebecca Johnson, co-founder and first president of the International Campaign for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, said: “The Prohibition Treaty is so trying to allow others around the world to see that no one wants nuclear weapons, and in fact they are an impediment, an impediment: they face the genuine security threats we have on the COVID floor for the climate.
She said in an interview with the Palestinian Authority that nuclear weapons cannot save him or resolve conflicts as the last maximum war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. “They’re just obstructing the road, and they’re very expensive. “, and the governments that have them are distracted from the real security disorders seeking to pay for those arms races that still haunt them. “
Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: “The undeniable truth is that the foreign network can never expect to face the consequences of a nuclear confrontation. No country is in a position to face a nuclear confrontation. “For what we can’t prepare for, we’ll have to prevent it.
There are more than 14,000 nuclear bombs in the world, thousands of which are in a position to be introduced in an instant, Rocca said. The strength of many of these warheads is ten times greater than the weapons dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
General Secretary Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday: “For me it is transparent that we will be completely sure about non-transparent weapons until the day when non-transparent weapons no longer exist. We know it’s easy. We know there are many barriers. »
He expressed the hope that a number of vital initiatives, adding the talks between the United States and Russia on the renewal of the New Start Treaty restricting the deployment of nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers, and next year’s review convention of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ” converge in the same direction, and the ultimate goal will have to be to have a world without nuclear weapons. “
The treaty was approved through the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly on 7 July 2017 by a vote of 122 votes in favour, the Netherlands opposed it and Singapore abstained. Iran is among the countries that voted. The five nuclear powers and 4 other countries known or suspected of possessing nuclear weapons – India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – boycotted the negotiations and voted on the treaty, as well as many of its allies.
Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945, who was a fervent proponent of the treaty, said: “When I learned that we had reached our 50th ratification, I could not introduce myself.
“I stayed in my chair and put my head in my hands and cried with joy,” he said in a statement. “I have committed my life to the abolition of nuclear weapons. I have nothing yet gratitude for all those who have worked for the good fortune of our treaty.
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