For Immediate Release: Sept. 27, 2013
Media Contacts: Daryl G. Kimball, Director, Arms Control Association, (202-463-8270 ext. 107)
(New York/Washington) -- At a meeting of more than 100 senior government officials at the United Nations to discuss pathways to bring the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into force, a diverse set of nongovernmental nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament leaders, as well as former government officials and diplomats are calling on all states to translate their words of support for the Treaty into concrete action.
In the statement to be delivered at the conference on behalf of civil society by Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, the nongovernmental experts said:
"If both the letter and spirit of the CTBT are adhered to, then it will help curtail improvements in existing arsenals and lower the prestige of nuclear weapons programs. It strengthens the pursuit of international order based on the rule of law. However, the promise and benefits of the CTBT remain unfulfilled because the eight key states have failed to sign and/or ratify the treaty. It is time to act. Seventeen years have already passed by since the treaty was concluded. This is already the eighth Article XIV Conference on Facilitating CTBT Entry Into Force."
The civil society statement urged the conference to "help produce what previous conferences have not: a serious diplomatic action plan for getting the remaining holdout states on board."
The full text of the statement can be found here.
"Until the remaining eight Annex II outlier states finally ratify the treaty, entry into force will be delayed and the door to the renewal of nuclear testing will remain ajar," Granoff told the conference.
Eight more states including—China, the DPRK, Egypt, India, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and the United States—must ratify before the CTBT can formally enter into force. To date, 183 states have signed the Treaty (including China and the United States) and 161 have ratified.
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The Arms Control Association (ACA) is an independent membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding and effective policies to address the threats posed by the world's most dangerous weapons: nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, as well as certain types of conventional weapons that pose a threat to noncombatants. ACA publishes the monthly journal Arms Control Today.