St & Verify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Trust Trust Summer 2019 Summer The Treaty on the Prohibition 2021 May Thirty years of Trust & Verify • Issue Number 164 Number Issue of Nuclear Weapons (2017) • Issue Number 168 Number Issue PartThe firstI: Universalisation edition of Trust & andVerify nationalcame out in implementation June 1989, three years after the charity had been established, as a response to the need for a ‘regular bulletin dealing solely with verifica- Suzanna Khoshabi, VERTIC • tion’. The bulletin has been published throughout most of VERTIC’s existence and is now & ISSN 0966–9221 • The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force on 22 January ISSN 0966–9221 in its 164th edition. This article seeks to capture broad developments in verification, imple- mentation2021, 90 days and after compliance, it gained theas reported requisite on 50 theinstruments pages of Trustof ratification & Verify overor accession the years. by states and three and a half years after it opened for signature on 20 September 2017. It is now legal- The world was a very different place when the Centre first started to write about Verify verification.ly binding for In its the States East, Parties, communist who are government under an obligationcontrol over to theirimplement populations its provisions. was begin - ning to slip. It began in Poland that summer, with the trade union Solidarity winning the electionUniversalisation in Poland. In the months that followed, reforms and upheaval would consume both HungaryArticle 12 andcontains Czechoslovakia, a notable obligation the Berlin for Wall states would to promote come down, universalisation and the dictatorship of the Treaty. in RomaniaStates Parties would have come executed to a bloody this by end.making These statements events startedof support a chain for thereaction Treaty throughout at the United the EasternNations Bloc,(UN) movingand urging so fast other that states contemporary to ratify it, consistentlyobservers would voting have in favourhad difficulty of the annual com- UNprehending General them. Assembly By Trust resolution & Verify on the No. TPNW 17, the and Soviet hosting Union, events a commandingto encourage otherforce statessince to1945, join had the seized Treaty. to Moreover, exist. the Treaty continues to gain support. It currently has 54 States Parties, andOf course, a further this 34 was states not thehave end signed of the but transformation not yet ratified. occurring While in 122 those states remarkable voted in favouryears. In of 1989,the adoption F. W. de of Klerk the TPNW was elected in 2017, South 130 African voted in president. support of His the government Treaty in the would 2020 UNstart Generalwork to bothAssembly dismantle Resolution apartheid on andthe dismantleTPNW. Its its rate nuclear of adherence weapons, workhas been that largelywould consistentbe completed with by those the oftime other Nelson Weapons Mandela of Mass was Destruction elected president (WMD) in treaties1994. : three and a half years afterThe they demiseopened offor the signature, Soviet theUnion Biological would openWeapons up a Conventiondecade of multilateral(BWC) had collabora 56 ratifi- cationstion. Throughout and the Chemical this period, Weapons the worldConvention saw action (CWC) on the had environment 57. The Comprehensive through the adop Test- Bantion Treatyof the United(CTBT) Nations had 55 Frameworkratifications, Convention however, the on ClimateTPNW hasChange fallen in behind 1992, thethe concluNuclear- Non-Proliferationsion of negotiations Treaty on a comprehensive(NPT) which had ban 66. on chemical weapons in 1993, a complete ban on nuclearHowever, weapons 42 statestesting remain in 1996, opposed and the to strengthening the Treaty, including of nuclear all safeguardsnuclear-armed in 1997. states and US nuclearThe 1990s umbrella were states,also markedposing aby significant a change in challenge the socio-economic to universalisation. power ofThese nations. states haveAt the made start theirof the positions decade, theclear ten through biggest boycottingeconomies thewere TPNW clustered negotiations in North America in 2017 and votingEurope, against with only it in Brazil subsequent and Japan UN being General outside Assembly the transatlantic resolutions. block. In a DecemberBy 2000, China 2020 United Kingdom United London E2 9DA Rd. Cambridge Heath House Green The statementhad joined, NATO’sthose ranks, North and Atlantic its economic Council strength explained would its membercontinue states’ to grow opposition in the decades to the Centre Information and Training Research, Veriﬁcation Treatythat followed. on the basisIn Europe, that it work risked to underminingachieve social theand NPT, economic as the integration “the only acceleratedcredible path with to nuclearthe opening disarmament” of the Treaty and on the European wider “non-proliferation Union (also known and as disarmament the Maastricht architecture”; Treaty) in 1992 the which established the largest trading bloc and integrated economy in the world. statement also noted that the TPNW does not reflect the “increasingly challenging interna- With these profound changes, barriers to the movement of capital, trade and peo- tional security environment”. ple fell. Moreover, the pace of digitalisation and the free exchange of data on the internet ( The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) reports that the VERTIC also meant that ideas, to a greater extent than ever before, were no longer constrained by Covid-19 pandemic has inevitably impacted some states’ efforts to sign or ratify the Treaty, as website email tel borders. Since our first edition, the world has become more prosperous, better educated and +44 (0)20 3559 6146 states have had to prioritise their pandemic responses. Moreover, pandemic-related restrictions ) [email protected] more transparent. This change did not benefit all, however, with the countries of the former www.vertic.org in place at the UN Headquarters prevented signature of the Treaty for several months. It is Soviet Union locked in a decades-long spiral of economic decline, and profound social worth noting that fewer states have signed the TPNW since it opened for signature than changes elsewhere started to create a growing sense of disenfranchisement and discontent other WMD treaties: the CWC had 109 signatures and the BWC 160 after the same amount in many parts of both the developed and developing world. of time. Furthermore, unlike the CWC, BWC and NPT, states can still sign (and ratify) the TPNW after it has entered into force. 2 Certain important dates have prompted spikes in Treaty The TPNW specifies several forms of victim assistance, ratification and accession. For example, in both 2018 and 2019, ranging from medical care to psychological support and social nine states ratified the Treaty on 26 September, the Interna- and economic inclusion, but does not detail how states should tional Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. None approach implementation. Practical steps may include for- did so on that date in 2020, however, this may have been due mulation of a national action plan and allocation of a budget. to the impact of the pandemic. Adherence has also coincided Regarding environmental remediation, the Treaty requires with the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima States Parties to take ‘necessary and appropriate measures’ and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 respectively, with coun- without further detail. Implementation of Article 6 is likely tries drawing upon the significance of the date in their advocacy to require further elaboration at future Meetings of States efforts calling for other states to ratify the Treaty. Honduras’ Parties, the first of which must occur within one year of entry ratification as the 50th state, triggering the TPNW’s entry into into force of the Treaty (Article 8.2) and has been confirmed force, coincided with the 75th anniversary of the UN and fol- to take place in Vienna from 12-14 January 2022. lowed ratifications by Jamaica and Nauru one day earlier. Since States may find it useful to undertake assessments of the Treaty has entered into force and as pandemic restrictions their existing legal framework to determine its compatibility subside, more states may prioritise membership. with the TPNW and inform decisions to amend or introduce new laws to implement its provisions. For example, although Implementation not a signatory or state party to the TPNW, the Netherlands Once they become a State Party, states are required under conducted such an assessment in 2019. For states which decide Article 5 to adopt national measures to implement their to enact new legislation to implement the treaty, the Inter- Treaty obligations. Article 5(2) touches upon prohibitions, national Committee of the Red Cross has drafted a model requiring States Parties to prevent any prohibited activities law intended for states to use as a helpful reference document. by persons or on territory under their jurisdiction and control Ireland is an example of a country which introduced dedi- through the introduction of legal and administrative measures cated legislation specifically to implement the TPNW, enacting as well as the imposition of penal sanctions. This entails the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Act in 2019. ensuring that national legislation criminalises the prohibitions Other states have also adopted laws prior to the TPNW outlined in Article 1, including the development, testing, which are nevertheless relevant to the obligations

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