{"id":105860,"date":"2017-06-16T09:23:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T13:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=105860"},"modified":"2017-06-16T09:23:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T13:23:25","slug":"un-treaty-to-ban-nuclear-weapons-may-be-adopted-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/06\/16\/un-treaty-to-ban-nuclear-weapons-may-be-adopted-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons may be adopted soon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elayne<\/a>
Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. (Photo<\/a>: Ministerio Relaciones Exteriores y Culto\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The president of the U.N. conference drafting what could be the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons expressed confidence Thursday that with \u201cthe necessary political will\u201d more than 130 countries supporting the initiative can reach agreement by the July 7 target.<\/p>\n

Elayne Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the opening of negotiations on a draft treaty circulated on May 22 that delegates were representing their countries\u2014but they were also \u201cunited together in historic commitment\u201d to finalizing a treaty.<\/p>\n

Last December, U.N. member states overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for negotiations on a treaty that would outlaw nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from nuclear-armed nations and their allies.<\/p>\n

Not one of the nine countries believed to possess nuclear weapons \u2014 the U.S., Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel \u2014 is supporting a treaty.<\/p>\n

Instead of adopting a total ban, the United States and other nuclear powers want to strengthen and reaffirm the nearly half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n

The NPT, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts, aims to prevent the spread of atomic arms beyond the five original weapons powers \u2014 the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China.<\/p>\n

It requires non-nuclear signatory nations not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five nuclear powers to move toward nuclear disarmament \u2014 and to guarantee non-nuclear states access to peaceful nuclear technology to produce nuclear power.<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on March 27 when talks began on the nuclear weapons ban treaty that \u201cthere is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons, but we have to be realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked if anyone thought North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons, stressing that North Koreans would be \u201ccheering\u201d a nuclear ban treaty \u2014 and Americans and others would be at risk.<\/p>\n

But U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told Thursday’s opening that negotiations to achieve \u201cthe clear, legal prohibition of nuclear weapons … are truly historic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear disarmament has been the longest sought objective of the United Nations dating back to the very first resolution adopted by the General Assembly in January 1946,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen some impressive gains since that time,\u201d Nakamitsu said. \u201cYet, it has been more than 20 years now since the United Nations disarmament bodies have produced a multilateral legally binding instrument on nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said \u201cthe need for progress is clear\u201d and urgent, pointing to \u201cthe deteriorating international security landscape,\u201d new awareness of the devastating consequences of using nuclear weapons, and the modernization of nuclear arsenals by some countries.<\/p>\n

The draft treaty, among other things, says states would pledge never to develop, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, transfer, receive, stockpile, test or use nuclear weapons or explosives. They would also endeavour to prohibit any \u201cstationing, installation or deployment of any nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices\u201d on their territories or in their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident the treaty can be completed and adopted by July 7,\u201d the final day of negotiations, said David Solimini, spokesman for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. \u201cOnce the treaty is adopted countries are free to join.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president of the U.N. conference drafting what could be the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons expressed confidence Thursday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":105861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}