{"id":108059,"date":"2020-10-26T16:41:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108059"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:41:03","slug":"the-quest-for-a-treaty-prohibiting-nuclear-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/26\/the-quest-for-a-treaty-prohibiting-nuclear-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"The quest for a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0ASOKA BANDARAGE<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Small states are leading the fight to make the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty legally binding <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A survivor walks through the ruins of atomic-bombed Hiroshima in August 1945. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of all the weapons created throughout human history, nuclear weapons are the most destructive and indiscriminate. They are capable of causing enormous devastation involving uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically damaging radioactive fallout<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas a single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill millions of people, the deployment of tens or hundreds of them could disrupt the global climate, creating intolerable conditions for both humans and other species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons<\/a>, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, was adopted in 1970 with the objectives of halting the adoption of these weapons and disarming those that already existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NPT recognized five states as nuclear-weapon states<\/a> (NWS). In order of acquisition, they are the United States<\/a>, Russia<\/a> (successor to the Soviet Union), the United Kingdom<\/a>, France<\/a> and China<\/a>. Ironically, these states are also the five permanent members<\/a> of the United Nations Security Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NPT has had limited success in curtailing nuclear weapons\u2019 proliferation and the motivation of states to acquire them. The five recognized NWS have also shown a reluctance to disarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the adoption of the NPT, three more states, India<\/a>, Pakistan<\/a> and North Korea,<\/a> have conducted overt nuclear tests<\/a>. North Korea, which had been a party to the NPT, withdrew in 2003, while Israel<\/a>, which is known to have nuclear weapons, does not acknowledge it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), these nine countries possess nearly 14,000 nuclear warheads<\/a>, enough to destroy the planet many times over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five more states \u2013 Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey \u2013 also host US nuclear weapons. Twenty-six other countries endorse\u201d the possession and use of nuclear weapons on their behalf in accordance with defense alliances, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the NPT\u2019s calls for a diminishing role\u201d for nuclear weapons in security policies, the five declared NWS have maintained huge stockpiles, leading critics to question the legitimacy and enforcement capacity of the treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US plans<\/a> to develop new weapons, including anti-ballistic missiles, earth-penetrating bunker busters\u201d and new small\u201d bombs, have been of particular concern. Strongly anti-nuclear countries like New Zealand also see the NPT\u2019s inability to subject Israel, India and Pakistan to the treaty\u2019s restrictions as a major problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As geopolitical conflicts intensify, nuclear-weapon states continue to modernize and rearm their arsenals, while still other states, such as Iran, are believed to be developing nuclear weapons. The danger of a limited nuclear war, if not a full-scale one, in the near future is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-nuclear movement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Among those leading the movement to ban nuclear weapons are the few remaining hibakusha<\/a>, the victims of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Setsuko Thurlow<\/a>, who was a 13-year-old schoolgirl when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is today a leader at ICAN in Geneva<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 6, 2017, ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.\u201d The landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted at the United Nations on July 7, 2017, with the support of 122 nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TPNW (also known as the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty) is the first legally binding international agreement comprehensively to prohibit nuclear weapons and to seek their total elimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 1<\/a> of the treaty, on Prohibitions,\u201d states that each state party undertakes never under any circumstances to do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n