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Peru ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 23 December 2021, becoming the 59th state party. The ministry of foreign affairs said that the move highlights Peru’s “high commitment to its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law”, as well as its “commitment to promoting international peace and security”.
Addressing the UN General Assembly this September, the minister of foreign affairs of Peru, Óscar Maúrtua, hailed the TPNW’s entry into force as a “great achievement” and “a legal and moral starting point on a long road to achieve nuclear disarmament”.
Peru is the 14th country in Latin America to ratify the TPNW, following Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay, El Salvador, Panama, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Honduras, and Chile. An additional four countries in the region have signed but not yet ratified the treaty: Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala.
Gisela Luján Andrade, Peruvian member of the Human Security Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEHLAC), an ICAN partner organisation, warmly welcomed Peru’s ratification. “It is concrete proof of the consensus that must arouse any commitment to nuclear disarmament, sustained peace and human security,” she said. “It is not only the result of the joint action – beyond political differences – of the executive and the legislative branches, but also their willingness to work with civil society.”
The congress of Peru unanimously approved a law to ratify the TPNW on 9 December 2021, following a review and positive recommendation by its foreign affairs committee. In September 2020, Peru announced that it was in the process of ratifying the treaty, “convinced that the prohibition of nuclear weapons and tests continues to be a moral imperative for the planet and the human species”.
Peru participated in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 states that voted in favour of its adoption. In its opening statement to the negotiating conference, it said: “What does not exist cannot cause harm. Nuclear weapons simply should not exist.”
Header photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash