Nuclear Weapons Convention

A Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC, Eng. Nuclear Weapons Convention , NWC) or Nuclear Weapons Convention would be a multilateral international treaty to ban nuclear weapons , similar to the Biological Weapons Convention , Chemical Weapons Convention , Landmine Convention and cluster bomb convention . Such a treaty could include the prohibition of the development, testing, manufacture, storage, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons.

Such a contract has been required by many non-governmental organizations since 1995 . In 1996, a group of scientists and disarmament experts, led by IALANA and INESAP, drew up a draft contract text. In 1997 Costa Rica submitted this draft as official UN Document A / C.1 / 52/7.

On October 24, 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke out in favor of negotiating a nuclear weapons convention.

On March 27, 2017, negotiations began on a nuclear weapons ban treaty following a resolution by the UN General Assembly . The aim is an “unambiguous political commitment” to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. This is intended as the first, quickly achievable step towards a nuclear weapons convention that also includes concrete disarmament measures. However, initially only two thirds of the 193 member states took part in the negotiations. The nuclear powers and almost all NATO countries including Germany were not involved. On July 7, 2017, the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty was finally adopted with a large majority of 122 votes and will come into force when 50 states have ratified it.

Contents of the 2007 draft model

The main sections:

Section I: General Obligations

Each State Party undertakes under no circumstances to ever use, prepare for, or threaten to use nuclear weapons; develop, test, manufacture, store or distribute them. The nuclear weapon states must completely destroy their arsenals in several phases, including destroying the delivery systems or rendering them unsuitable for use with nuclear warheads . The manufacture of fissile materials suitable for use in weapons is also prohibited .

Section III: Notifications

Each State Party must report all nuclear weapons that are or have been in its territory or under its control; likewise all stocks of fissile material, nuclear facilities and carrier systems. The exact location, quantity and type must be specified in a detailed inventory .

Section IV: Implementation Phases

This section sets out five phases for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide. Points in time are specified at which the conditions described must be met. The exact dates from the entry into force must be negotiated; suggestions are made in the draft model (given in brackets).

Phase 1 (after one year)

Section III (reports) must be fulfilled in full. All weapons and delivery systems will be taken off the alert and switched off, target coordinates will be deleted, the production of weapon components will be terminated, development and research will be halted and the production of fissile materials will be severely restricted.

Phase 2 (after two years)

Delivery systems and warheads are removed from their positions. Agreements are being negotiated to place all nuclear weapons, fissile materials and nuclear facilities under preventive control.

Phase 3 (after five years)

All nuclear weapons are dismantled. All nuclear warheads will be irreversibly destroyed, with the exception of small remnants for Russia and the USA (1,000 warheads each are proposed) and China, France and the United Kingdom (100 each are proposed). All delivery systems will be destroyed or made unsuitable for nuclear weapons. All nuclear facilities will be decommissioned and closed.

Phase 4 (after 10 years)

The number of remaining nuclear warheads will be further reduced (proposed are 50 each for Russia and the USA, 10 each for China, France and the United Kingdom). All reactors that use highly enriched uranium or plutonium will be closed. All fissile material is placed under strict, effective and exclusive preventive control.

Phase 5 (after 15 years)

All nuclear weapons will be completely and irreversibly destroyed.

Section V: Review

To ensure that disarmament proceeds correctly and that rearmament cannot take place, an extensive system of surveillance measures is being set up. It includes state reports, scheduled and unannounced on-site inspections, satellite imagery, sensors, radionuclide samples and other remote intelligence methods, information sharing with government and non-governmental organizations, and reports from citizens. With the exception of confidential data, the information received via the monitoring system is made accessible in a central register.

Additional confidence-building measures are also planned.

Section VII: Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals

Individuals have a duty to report violations of the Convention and will be protected in doing so. A right of asylum is also provided. It also sets out rules for prosecuting people who commit a crime under the Convention.

Section VIII: Agency

The Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is established. She is responsible for the implementation and review of the contract and decision-making. All contracting states are members of the agency. It comprises a Conference of the States Parties, an Executive Council and a Technical Secretariat.

Section X: Fissile Material

The production of fissile material directly suitable for use in weapons is prohibited. Low-enriched uranium may be used for energy generation. The civil use of atomic energy remains allowed.

See also

• NPT , nuclear-Ban Treaty , Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty , nuclear power , nuclear weapons-free zone
• Chemical Weapons Convention
• Bioweapons Convention
• Ottawa Convention (anti-personnel mines)

literature

Merav Datan, Felicity Hill, Jürgen Scheffran, Alyn Ware: Securing our Survival (SOS) - The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention . Ed .: IALANA , INESAP , IPPNW . Cambridge, Massachusetts 2007, ISBN 978-0-646-47379-6 ( inesap.org [accessed March 27, 2008]).

Web links

• English version of the draft model (UN Document A / 62/650)
• Complete German translation of the draft model (PDF file; 476 kB)
• Campaign "our future - free of nuclear weapons": Brief info on the Nuclear Weapons Convention
• The Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor documented the discussion about the NWK in three editions in 2001, 2002 and 2003
• English background texts from the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
• INESAP

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed December 28, 2008) 
2. ↑ ^{a b} taz of March 27, 2017, accessed on March 31, 2017
3. ↑ Working paper 34 , submitted to the UN Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, Geneva, May 11, 2016.