BS on Nuclear Test Ban?

Independent Films, Technology, Politics

Almost everyone says they want it, but who has not ratified nuclear ban treaty?


Ahead of an upcoming conference aimed at promoting the entry into force of the treaty banning all nuclear explosions, Annika Thunborg, Spokesperson for the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) said today (1 Sept) that 15 years after the signing of the Treaty, nuclear testing has almost “screeched to a halt”, but there are still “a handful too many” tests being performed.

The seventh Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) will take place on 23 September 2011 in New York. The aim of the conference is to examine how hold-out States can be brought in to sign and ratify the Treaty for it to come into effect. It will bring together representatives of ratifying States, States Signatories, and States that have not yet signed or ratified the Treaty.

Thunborg said that “the key challenge and the crux of the issue is still that the Treaty hasn’t entered into force” because nine countries have not yet ratified it, pointing out that “many of these nine countries are also nuclear armed states, which makes it even more important.”

With a total of 182 signatures and 154 ratifications the Treaty is close to universality. Particular attention is being paid to those States participated in the negotiations of the Treaty in 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time.

Thirty-five out of the 44 of these have ratified the Treaty, including three of the nuclear weapon States: France, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The nine remaining States are: China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

The Spokesperson explained that “you have few that would say that they do not support the test ban” but stressed that what is needed “is not declaratory policies, it is action.”

She said that the difficulty in getting full ratification is that “different countries link their positions to other countries positions.”

In the two years since the last conference, the Treaty was signed by one more State – Trinidad and Tobago – and ratified by four – the Central African Republic, Ghana, the Marshall Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey (UNTV-CTBTO)

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey (UNTV-CTBTO)