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For over 80 years, nuclear weapons have threatened everything we treasure, and the risks are growing. Both threats to use nuclear weapons and threats to make more nuclear weapons usable have the potential to lead us towards global catastrophe. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and ICAN, our partners, cities, parliamentarians and a global majority of countries are pushing back- and using the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to show that nuclear weapons are totally unacceptable. The Treaty became international law five years ago- here are five ways it has impacted the world.
1. Nuclear weapons are illegal
The TPNW is the first globally applicable treaty that categorically prohibits nuclear weapons, puts in place a framework for verifiably and irreversibly eliminating them, and for assisting the victims of their use and testing. Every country that joins the TPNW agrees that the use, possession, development, testing and threat of use of nuclear weapons is against the law. This reinforces nuclear non-proliferation treaties, and strengthens norms against nuclear weapons. It has strengthened the international safeguards regime administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency and reinforced the global norm against nuclear testing. At a time when the possibility of achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world seems remote, the TPNW provides confidence to governments and the public that progress can be achieved, because a legal framework is now in place for eliminating nuclear-weapon programmes in a time-bound and verifiable manner.
2. Nuclear justice is at the heart of disarmament conversations
One of the main drivers behind the TPNW was a shift in focus from nuclear weapons as mythical tools of national power, to bombs that have been tested and used and which left an intergenerational legacy of harm around the world. Since the TPNW became international law, we have seen that survivors of nuclear explosions in 1945 and the subsequent 2000+ tests are at the heart of nuclear weapon discussions, not just around the TPNW, but reaching into the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, the UN General Assembly, and even creating a global audience for national level efforts to address legacies of nuclear testing by the nuclear-armed countries. The TPNW has also provided an important forum for communities affected by the use and testing of nuclear weapons to discuss their ongoing needs.
3. Exposing the scam of nuclear deterrence
The risk and consequences of nuclear deterrence failure can’t be argued. By focusing on science and evidence-based policy decisions, the TPNW and its supporters are challenging the false narrative of nuclear deterrence. Through the TPNW there is a growing understanding among all countries that nuclear deterrence policies are a legitimate security concern including for nuclear-free countries and the treaty is there to protect everyone.
4. The nuclear weapons debate is more democratic
The TPNW has broken the two-class system where nuclear-armed countries dictated the rules around who is considered relevant to discussions on nuclear weapons. By acknowledging the disproportionate impact of nuclear weapons on indigenous peoples, and on women and girls, the TPNW has created space for more voices to engage in the debate. There is a clear recognition under the TPNW that nuclear weapons use has the potential to impact everyone, not just the nuclear-armed countries, so everyone has a responsibility and a right to speak about them.
5. Trillions of dollars are being kept out of the nuclear weapons industry
Weapons that are banned by treaties quickly lose their legitimacy and get cut off from the resources for their production. The TPNW has prompted financial institutions to keep more than $4.7 trillion out of any investment exposure to the companies that manufacture nuclear weapons. Hundreds of banks, pension funds and other financial institutions have pledged never to finance nuclear-weapon-producing companies on the basis that these weapons are now prohibited under international law.