Guatemala

Nuclear-weapon-free state

Voted in favour of adopting TPNW

Has signed TPNW, but not yet ratified

Guatemala has signed but not yet ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Sandra Erica Jovel Polanco, the minister for foreign affairs of Guatemala, signed the treaty on 20 September 2017. The government announced in October 2019 that it is in the “final stage” of ratifying the treaty. 

Guatemala participated in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and voted in favour of its adoption.


Addressing the United Nations ahead of the signing ceremony in September 2017, the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, described the treaty as “an important step towards a world free of nuclear weapons” and said that “collective security can only be achieved through the prohibition and total elimination of nuclear weapons”.

Guatemala has promoted universal adherence to the treaty, including by co-sponsoring a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that calls upon all states to sign, ratify, or accede to the treaty “at the earliest possible date”.

In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, Guatemala expressed strong support for the “historic process”, which “is the result of tireless efforts and unwavering political will on the part of a growing majority of states”.

In 2016, Guatemala was a co-sponsor of the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence the negotiations in 2017 on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Guatemala was among 127 states that endorsed a “humanitarian pledge” in 2015–16 to cooperate “in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons”. The pledge was instrumental in building momentum and support for convening the negotiations.

Guatemala is a state party to the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which established Latin America and the Caribbean as a nuclear-weapon-free zone.


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Local Partner Organizations

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  • Association of Guatemalan Physicians and Scientists for the Prevention of War 

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  • EPCAT

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