UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Set To Enter Into Force In January

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Oct, 2020 ) :A United Nations treaty to ban nuclear weapons is slated to enter into force on January 22, 2021, after Honduras became the 50th member state to ratify on Saturday, according to a U.N. announcement, as leading campaigners called the development "a new chapter for nuclear disarmament".

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commended all the countries whose ratification of the accord, approved by 122 nations at the General Assembly in 2017, has helped bring the ban on weapons this far, singling out the work of civil society groups.

The Netherlands had voted against the treaty and Singapore abstained. Iran was among those who voted in favour of treaty.

The five main nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and four other nuclear-armed countries -- India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel � did not take part in the negotiations and in the vote on the treaty, along with many of their allies.

On Sunday, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2017, declared through Executive Director Beatrice Fihn that the coming into force of the treaty was "a new chapter for nuclear disarmament. Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned." One survivor of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima, Setsuko Thurlow, told ICAN that she had committed her whole life to advocating a ban on atomic arms.

"I have nothing but gratitude for all who have worked for the success of our treaty", she said.

Saturday's milestone was reached a day after the island nations of Jamaica and Nauru submitted their ratifications meaning that in 90 days, the treaty will become active, banning nuclear weapons just over 75 years after they were first used at the end of World War Two.

"Entry into force is a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this Treaty", the UN chief said in his statement.

Guterres described the entry into force, as "the culmination of a worldwide movement to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.

"It represents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations." The secretary-general said he was looking forward to doing his part in facilitating the treaty's progress towards total elimination.

The treaty declares that the countries ratifying it must "never under any circumstance develop, test, produce, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices."Adopted on 7 July 2017 at a UN conference in New York, the Treaty represented the first multilateral legally binding instrument for nuclear disarmament in two decades.