This is the first multilateral negotiation on nuclear weapons since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted in 1996. It is also the first ever such negotiation relating to the global elimination of nuclear arms, despite the fact that the first UN General Assembly resolution, in 1946, called for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.
The nuclear-armed states (US, UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel) are not participating, nor are almost all states in military alliances with the US. The aim, nonetheless, is to set a global standard stigmatising nuclear arms and laying the foundation for their universal and permanent elimination.
The initiative grew out of three conferences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear explosions organised by the governments of Norway, Austria, and Mexico, in 2013 and 2014. The straightforward message is that the consequences of use of nuclear weapons are morally unacceptable and also incompatible with international humanitarian law barring the use of weapons causing unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate harm.
A common objection made by US allies is that a nuclear ban treaty will undermine the NPT. Participating states reply: How? We are negotiating an effective measure relating to nuclear disarmament as Article VI requires of all NPT states parties.
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