Early this year, together with a coalition of faith-based communities from around the world, we celebrated the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) by issuing a Statement welcoming this development.
The Treaty is the first legally binding international treaty to comprehensively ban nuclear weapons. It also deals with the disproportionate impact of nuclear weapons on girls, women and indigenous peoples, the importance of victim assistance and the need to heal environmental harms in a groundbreaking way.
Adopted by the UN in July 2017, the Treaty required 50 UN members states to sign and ratify before it becomes legally binding. Despite the objections of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the Treaty came into force on January 22, 2021 with 86 member states signing and and 54 ratifying.
The Basic Obligations for those who signed:
• Prohibits developing, testing, producing, stockpiling nuclear weapons
• Bans using or threatening to use nuclear weapons
• Forbids stationing, installing, or deploying nuclear weapons on State Parties’ territories
• Obligates States Parties to provide victim assistance and help with environmental remediation necessary due to testing or use of nuclear weapons
Read our Statement here.
Learn about the Treaty here. The main points are in this Fact Sheet.
We invite everyone to advocate and urge all governments to sign the Treaty for a world without nuclear weapons. Find out if your country has signed here.
