UN Calls For Immediate Ratification Of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

The United Nations today (August 29, 2016) asked all member states who have not as yet ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT’) to do so now in order to end the poisonous legacy.

"Those States whose ratification is required to bring the Treaty into force should not wait for others. Even one ratification can act as a circuit breaker", the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon stated in his message at the UN headquarters in New York to mark the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

The UN chief lamented that "since its adoption 20 years ago by the General Assembly, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has yet to enter into force.

"Given the catastrophic risks posed by nuclear weapons to our collective human and environmental security – even our very existence – we must reject this stalemate", Mr. Ban Ki-Moon pointed out.

To correct the present situation, he charged all states that have not done so to sign and ratify because every ratification strengthens the norm of universality and shines a harsher spotlight on the countries that fail to act.

In his words "On this Day, I call on all countries and peoples to work for the CTBT’s entry into force as soon as possible so that we may advance toward a nuclear-weapon-free world".

For nearly a decade, the United Nations Secretary-General said he had witnessed many of the worst problems in the world as well as our collective ability to respond in ways that at times seemed impossible.

He argued forcefully that a prohibition on all nuclear testing "will boost momentum for other disarmament measures by showing that multilateral cooperation is possible, and it will build confidence for other regional security measures, including a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction".

"Our ambitious new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change have demonstrated the power of political will to break longstanding deadlocks', he noted saying that "on this International Day against Nuclear Tests, I call on the world to summon a sense of solidarity commensurate with the urgent need to end the dangerous impasse on this issue".

Recalling his visit to Semipalatinsk in 2010, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon said he saw the toxic damage – but "I also witnessed the resolve of the victims and survivors. I share their determination to strive for a world free of nuclear weapons".

Today marks a quarter of a century since the closure of the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan, ground zero for more than 450 nuclear tests. The victims there are joined by others scattered across Central Asia, North Africa, North America and the South Pacific.