Era of Prohibition

Less than six months after the first nuclear weapons were used by the US, the UN General Assembly put forth a motion to cease all production and total elimination of nuclear weapons. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “Over the next twenty years, as UN representatives deliberated over how to prevent the proliferation, or spread, of nuclear weapons, four more countries obtained nuclear weapons: the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Fortunately, by August 1967, after many negotiations, the United States and the Soviet Union submitted a draft non-proliferation treaty to a UN committee focused on disarmament” (Global Era Issues, 2018).

 

Fast forward to 2017, the UN General Assembly once again called for a convening for the discussion of legally binding instruments to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their complete elimination. While not all member states were in attendance, the Assembly encourage as many as were willing to participate. After convening twice, member states submitted and passed The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and, according to the United Nations official web source,

“includes a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities. These include undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The treaty also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and the provision of assistance to any State in the conduct of prohibited activities. States parties will be obliged to prevent and suppress any activity prohibited under the TPNW undertaken by persons or on territory under its jurisdiction or control. The Treaty also obliges States parties to provide adequate assistance to individuals affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons, as well as to take necessary and appropriate measure of environmental remediation in areas under its jurisdiction or control contaminated as a result of activities related to the testing or use of nuclear weapons” (United Nations, 2018).