On October 24th 2020 Honduras became the 50th state to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, meaning that the treaty comes into effect today, 22nd January 2021. This means the treaty will become law for the now 51 states who have ratified it. For states who ratify the treaty in the future, it will come immediately into effect.
NIS is producing, or co-producing, several publications to mark this historic occasion. The first publication, out this week is an analysis by Dr Rebecca Johnson of The Acronym Institute on the implications for the UK of the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The briefing has been produced in collaboration with NIS and CND, and is funded by the Nuclear Education Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Cbaritable Trust.
The briefing will be followed by a full report on the same subject, also written by Dr Rebecca Johnson, due in late February.
In early February NIS will be releasing a briefing by Sanem Topal on the attitudes of States without nuclear weapons to the modernisation programmes of the states which possess nuclear weapons. The briefing compiles all the official statements on the subject in Review Conferences and Preparatory Committees for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and in the Open Ended Working Group and negotiations for the TPNW.
NIS would like to congratulate everyone who has worked on the treaty and to express the hope that the occasion spurs a renewed push for the goal of both the TPNW and the NPT: a nuclear-free world.