The United Nations will host the second session of negotiations on a legally binding agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons in New York from June 15 to July 7. The negotiations could possibly produce a treaty for adoption at the conclusion of this session.

PNND representatives will be in New York observing the negotiations, interacting with government delegations and participating in side events, some organised by PNND.

The nuclear-armed States, and virtually all of the states under extended nuclear deterrence relationships (NATO, Australia, Japan and South Korea) are not participating in the negotiations, and are not expected to sign-on the the nuclear ban treaty. However, the treaty could still play an important role in advancing a global norm against possession and use of nuclear weapons.

Draft treaty released

On May 22, Ambassador Whyte Gómez (Costa Rica), the President of the UN negotiating conference, released a draft of the treaty.

As expected the draft outlines general obligations that would prohibit States parties to the treaty from developing, producing, acquiring, possessing, testing or using nuclear weapons.

The draft treaty does not include specific prohibitions on the threat to use nuclear weapons or on the financing of nuclear weapons production. It does include a prohibition on aiding, encouraging or inducing others to manufacture nuclear weapons, which could possibly cover threat to use and financing of nuclear weapons. However some NGOs, such as UNFOLD ZERO and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, are calling for more specific prohibitions on these issues.

See Ban treaty should affirm illegality of the threat to use nuclear weapons and Ban treaty should prohibit nuclear weapons financing.

Relationship to NPT and UN High Level Conference

Amongst the issues of interest to PNND is the relationship of the ban treaty to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the 2018 UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, both of which include nuclear-armed and other nuclear-reliant States.

A principal aim of the UN HIgh Level Conference is to make progress toward a nuclear weapons convention – a global treaty on the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons that would include the nuclear-armed States.

See The Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 2018 UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, a working paper from PNND and UNFOLD ZERO to the 2017 NPT Prep Com.

Side events

PNND is involved in a number of side-events at the negotiations including:

Credit : PNND Global