TREATY STATUS

  73 States Parties
  94 signatories

TPNW gains states parties, advances work on victim assistance and security concerns consultative process

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) gained three new states - Indonesia, Sierra Leone and the Solomon Islands - as states parties during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week’s annual Treaty event from 24-27 September, the only treaty on nuclear weapons to do so. Indonesia becomes the TPNW’s largest state party by population, with a population of more than 284 million people. Speaking to the ratification of the Solomon Islands, Maverick Peter Seda from the Malaita Provincial Youth Council, an ICAN partner organisation in the Solomon Islands, and Reverse the Trend, a youth initiative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation said: “This is amazing news for all the young people in the Solomon Islands who have worked tirelessly to promote this outcome. We are committed to the goal of a nuclear-free Pacific and world.”

States parties and civil society also recently began new initiatives to get additional countries on board. On 6 September, in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICAN and South Africa co-hosted the African Conference on the Universalisation and Implementation of the TPNW for permanent representatives and experts of African Union member states, representatives of international organisations, scientific and civil society to take stock of the treaty from a regional perspective and advocate the need for further progress in universalising the treaty in Africa. In Switzerland, in July, the Swiss Alliance for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons launched a federal popular initiative to gather the 100,000 signatures needed from the Swiss public within 18 months to trigger a popular vote on joining the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

States parties to the TPNW continued actively on implementation work, with the next Meeting of States Parties scheduled to take place in less than six months, during the week of 3 March 2025 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Co-chairs of the working group on victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation and assistance, Kiribati and Kazakhstan, convened consultations with individuals affected by nuclear weapons use and testing about the proposal to create an international trust fund for this work. The first consultation was with representatives of the hibakusha, who survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, held in late May. The second was held with representatives of countries in the Pacific affected by nuclear weapons testing, with speakers from Australia, Fiji, Kiribati and Maoui Nui/French Polynesia in late September. Meanwhile, TPNW states parties met in June, July and September to discuss their security concerns related to nuclear risks, and nuclear deterrence policies, with expert presentations.

Indonesia, Sierra Leone and the Solomon Islands join the TPNW during High-Level Week at the UN in September. Photo: ICAN

From the Summit of the Future to the UN General Assembly: states meet to discuss disarmament

Naomi Zoka addresses the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee. Photo: ICAN

From July to September, there were a number of multilateral meetings addressing nuclear disarmament, with varying outcomes. The Summit for the Future took place on 22-23 September, and the Pact for the Future document was adopted. On nuclear disarmament the Pact includes Action 25: “We will advance the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons” and Action 26 “We will uphold our disarmament obligations and commitments.” While the actions reaffirm existing commitments, they do not add any new obligations. Nuclear-armed states and nuclear complicit states have shown little respect for their promises to adhere to these commitments, underscoring the need for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a new tool for nuclear disarmament.

All through the UN General Assembly High-Level Week from 23-27 September, state leaders expressed their concern about nuclear weapons. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva referenced the egregious spending on nuclear weapons and how those more than 90 billion dollars could have been used to combat hunger and climate change. The President of the General Assembly’s 79th session, H. E. Philemon Yang, in his address to the First Committee said “I call on those states which have not yet acceded to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to do so without delay.”

The second Preparatory Committee of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was held over two weeks in July-August 2024 and did not result in a consensus outcome document. Throughout the NPT Preparatory Committee, civil society and states spoke up against the refusal of nuclear weapons states to disarm, contrary to professed democratic values. ICAN’s statement was delivered by Naomi Zoka, who lives in Belgium, where U.S. nuclear weapons are stationed, and she stated that:

“Nuclear weapons deployed in Europe are designed to be used in Europe. But the consequences will not stay on this continent- and this continued deployment is decreasing security for others. … As citizens in the countries hosting nuclear weapons, we have repeatedly called for the bombs to be removed, but our governments claim they cannot discuss the issue- that it is not something they can confirm or deny. It seems that governments who support the use of nuclear weapons on their behalf believe in just enough transparency to make nuclear threats credible, but not enough transparency to enable effective democracy."

In August, the government of Kazakhstan invited representatives of the nuclear-weapon-free zones to Astana to meet to discuss collaboration amongst the zones. ICAN hosted a side event to share views on how the nuclear-weapon-free zones and the TPNW can strengthen each other. Melissa Parke, ICAN’s Executive Director, delivered a speech to the conference, highlighting the importance of this work being led by nuclear affected states, and challenging the idea that nuclear weapons are “normal”: “I sometimes hear members of the public say, ignorantly, that we need nuclear weapons because everyone else has them. They seem to believe that possessing nuclear weapons is the norm, when in fact just nine out of almost 200 countries in the world have them. Being a part of a nuclear-weapon-free zone is the norm.”