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With the third Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) due to start at the UN on Monday 3 March, we take stock of the progress achieved by state parties to this treaty, since their last meeting in 2023. This meeting will bring together governments and civil society from all around the world to continue to build on the treaty’s vision of the total elimination of nuclear weapons as the world marks the 80th anniversary since the start of the nuclear threat.
Progress under the TPNW Action Plan
The TPNW– adopted at the United Nations in 2017 with the overwhelming support of the international community – is the first globally applicable treaty that categorically prohibits the most destructive, inhumane instruments of war ever created. This landmark treaty is also the first to put in place a framework for verifiably and irreversibly eliminating nuclear weapons, and for assisting the victims of their use and testing. The actions taken under the treaty since its entry into force in 2021 show how the international community is making good on the vision of a world without nuclear weapons.
At the first meeting of states parties (1MSP) to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, states adopted the Vienna Action Plan, an ambitious 50-point framework to achieve progress on the treaty. This led to the establishment of an intersessional structure with thematic informal working groups led by co-chairs and facilitators, as well as a Scientific Advisory Group and Coordinating Committee, which was further strengthened during 2MSP in 2023.
Working Groups
In this intersessional period, work has continued on:
- Universalising the Treaty, which currently counts 94 signatories and 73 states parties, meaning half the world’s states are now on board.;
- the technical aspects of nuclear disarmament verification (article 4);
- Discussions on an international trust fund to implement Articles 6 and 7;
- Exploring and articulating the possible areas of tangible cooperation between the TPNW and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear weapons free zones, as well as other relevant processes related to human rights and the environment;
- Gender considerations within the treaty, and more.
For more on the intersessional work please follow ICAN’s dedicated webpage here.
Updating the Science
Ahead of the 3MSP, the Scientific Advisory Group has produced an update to their report for TPNW states parties on its activities and on “the status and developments regarding nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon risks, the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament and related issues”
Challenging deterrence
One of the groundbreaking agreements from 2MSP was an agreement to better promote the security concerns of TPNW states parties on nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence policies. States parties mandated states, the International Committee of the Red Cross and ICAN and other stakeholders and experts, “To challenge the security paradigm based on nuclear deterrence by highlighting and promoting new scientific evidence about the humanitarian consequences and risks of nuclear weapons and juxtaposing this with the risks and assumptions that are inherent in nuclear deterrence.” Facilitated by Austria, states parties have engaged in a consultative process to assess the ways nuclear deterrence is a threat to their security, detailed in a report which will be presented to 3MSP . The report also has a set of recommendations for how states parties can raise these concerns in other bodies and fora and engage with states relying on nuclear weapons in innovative ways.
Expectations of 3MSP
The Third Meeting of States Parties will take place on 3 to 7 March 2025 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, with H.E. Ambassador Akan Rakhmetullin (Kazakhstan) serving as President. The diplomatic meeting will have four main sections of debate: a high-level segment, a thematic debate on the risks to humanity of a nuclear conflict and its devastating humanitarian consequences, a general debate and reviewing the status and operation of the treaty.
In addition to the diplomatic meetings taking place throughout the week, ICAN is anticipating dozens of civil society and government convened events on a variety of topics, from nuclear justice to art to youth engagement. Representatives of communities whose health and environment have been affected by nuclear weapons will be in New York taking part in the meeting and coming together collectively to share their experiences and discuss their fights for justice. Elected representatives from around the world will also be gathering for the Parliamentarians forum happening alongside the MSP and young campaigners demanding the end of nuclear weapons will be holding a youth forum. For a full overview, please see ICAN’s Nuclear Ban Week calendar.
ICAN expects that this meeting will issue a strong condemnation of nuclear deterrence, and the new nuclear arms race. The meeting’s outcome should also continue a strong intersessional process, one in which concrete work towards nuclear disarmament and nuclear justice is taking place. At this key historic moment, with heightened nuclear risk, states are expected to push back against that threat that nuclear weapons pose and the urgency for nuclear disarmament.