More than 150 states apply the UN treaty that bans atomic weapons

The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, approved in 2017 by 122 countries within the UN and ratified by fifty other states, entered into force at midnight this Friday in what is the first multilateral atomic disarmament agreement in more two decades. UN Secretary General António Guterres called the pact “an important step towards a world free of nuclear weapons” while representing “a strong demonstration of support for multilateral approaches to disarmament.”

The Portuguese president said he felt “anxious” to guide the UN response to the treaty, including preparations for the first meeting of participating states, because “nuclear weapons pose growing dangers and the world needs urgent action to ensure their elimination and prevent them. catastrophic human and environmental consequences that its use would cause.

At the end of last year, the document obtained the fifty ratifications it needed to enter into force, in what is understood as “a new chapter for nuclear disarmament.” However, it should be noted that the major powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and France) have not signed the agreement. Countries that have ratified it may “never develop, test, produce, manufacture or acquire, possess or store nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”

The application of the treaty, on the same day that US President Joe Biden offered his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to extend the New Start agreement on the control of its own arsenals, was received by various atomic agencies and humanitarian organizations such as a ‘victory for Humanity. The nuclear ban will only get stronger from now on, “they asserted.