Fissile Material Report Points Toward Treaty
UN Disarmament Conference Delayed
Under Article VI of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), each of the parties, including the nuclear-weapon-state parties...
Unlike chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons are not explicitly and comprehensively prohibited under international law. This may reasonably labeled a legal gap.
Two competing proposals on disarmament reflect continued differences among UN states on how to achieve that goal.
As the Conference on Disarmament nears the end of its annual session, the body remains stalemated although some member states say they think there has been progress toward a fissile material cutoff treaty.
Since the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons have motivated ordinary citizens to push their leaders to pursue arms control and disarmament measures to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons use.
Non-nuclear-weapon states at the United Nations showed their growing impatience with inaction on disarmament by voting to start “urgent” talks on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
As the step-by-step approach to nuclear disarmament loses steam, support is building at the United Nations to move directly to the elimination of nuclear weapons, but finding consensus remains difficult.
Citing Iran’s violations of UN Security Council resolutions calling on Tehran to end certain nuclear activities, U.S. and Canadian officials announced last month that the heads of their delegations at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD) would be boycotting the body while Iran presides over it from May 26 to June 23.