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NPT Review Conference Briefing Paper
Joint recommendations from the global partner organisations of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons to states-parties of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ahead of the upcoming Review Conference.
Updated: December 2021
Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created. A single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill more than a million people in a matter of seconds. More than fifty years after the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force, there are still over 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world, many ready to be used within minutes. States have failed to implement agreed actions from past Review Conference documents, including ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, negotiation of further bilateral reductions between United States and Russia, lowering of the operational status of warheads, reducing the role and significance of nuclear weapons in military doctrines, the unequivocal undertaking for nuclear disarmament, and the 1995 resolution on the Middle East.
At the NPT Review Conference, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons encourages all states to:
- Express deep concern at the continued risk for humanity represented by the possibility that nuclear weapons could be used and the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from the use of nuclear weapons.
- Acknowledge that the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons cannot be adequately addressed, transcend national borders, pose grave implications for human survival, the environment, socioeconomic development, the global economy, food security and the health of current and future generations, and have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, including as a result of ionizing radiation.
- Reiterate the unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament to which all States parties are committed under Article VI.
- Condemn nuclear-armed states’ qualitative and quantitative advancement of their nuclear arsenals.
- Condemn non-nuclear weapon states’ plans to use highly-enriched uranium for military purposes, including Australia’s proposed acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, as undermining the NPT and weakening the IAEA safeguards system.
- Express concern about the rising risk of nuclear weapon use caused by the advance of artificial intelligence and cyber operations.
- Call on nuclear-armed states to undertake nuclear disarmament, for some states to stop hosting other countries’ nuclear weapons on their territories and for states to reject the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons on their behalf.
- Welcome the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in July 2017, call on all states to adhere to the TPNW and note that the TPNW complements and strengthens the NPT as an effective measure as foreseen in Article VI.
You can download the briefing paper as a PDF here.