SHARE
UPDATE 16 April 2021: The dates below have been confirmed.
The first meeting of states parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will take place in Vienna in January next year, with the proposed dates of 12 - 14 January 2022. The President-designate of the meeting is Austria's Alexander Kmentt.
Austria is inviting the states and civil society to come together for the first time to discuss how to implement the treaty and measure the treaty’s progress towards its goal. The President-designate of the meeting is Austria's Alexander Kmentt.
This meeting is an important opportunity for states to commit to concrete actions to implement obligations like providing assistance to victims of nuclear weapon use and testing, beginning to remediate contaminated environments and universalising the treaty. It also gives states a chance to discuss some of the treaty’s technical details, like setting a deadline for the elimination of nuclear weapons for nuclear-armed states that join.
Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN, welcomed the news. "It is very exciting to begin this next phase of work on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons. This is when we start turning the new law into a strong norm. Vienna 2022 will set the tone and pace of global nuclear disarmament work, and be another significant milestone in our efforts to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons."
Right now, governments and the UN are working out the logistics and practical details for this meeting. ICAN will be in Vienna, both as the civil society coordinators for the government conference and to organise civil society activities around the meeting. If you would like to be updated as our plans progress, please sign up for our newsletter.
Exciting news! The first meeting of states parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will take place in January 2022 in Vienna, @alexanderkmentt of Austria will preside over the meeting. pic.twitter.com/5Slg5z3n0w
— ICAN (@nuclearban) April 9, 2021
header photo: Wiener Hofburg | IPPNW Deutschland CC BY-NC-SA 2.0