On 27 October 2016, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted resolution L.41 to convene negotiations in 2017 on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

The detailed voting result on Resolution L.41 in the United Nation's First Committee.

Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of ICAN, delivered the following remarks at the signing ceremony for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in New York on 20 September 2017:

A large majority of Germans are in favour of Germany signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that will be opened for signature on 20 September at the United Nations. A YouGov opinion poll commissioned by ICAN Germany showed that 71% of citizens in Germany think that Germany should join the treaty with 14% are against it.

In an op-ed in one of the largest Swedish newspapers, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced her ambition to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will open for signature at UN Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2017, during the High-Level Segment of the 72^nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, and will be a great moment for heads of state, foreign ministers and other representatives of governments to sign this historic treaty.

On 6 and 9 August, the world will commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This comes at a moment when a majority of governments around the world are preparing to sign the recently adopted Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

After a decade-long effort by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and 72 years after their invention, today states at the United Nations formally adopted a treaty which categorically prohibits nuclear weapons.

On 7 July 2017, the United Nations adopted a landmark agreement to ban nuclear weapons, known officially as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Here we answer some frequently asked questions about how the treaty will operate.