The UN Ban Brief

On March 27, 2017, a majority of the world’s nations will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York City to begin historic negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Almost half a century has passed since governments concluded the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a “landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament,” according to the UN. While most of the 190 states party would agree that more can be done toward realizing the NPT’s core objective of a world free of nuclear weapons, is a UN ban the answer?

Our new Ban Brief offers regular updates on the ban negotiations, their background, and their implications. It is written by Tim Wright, Asia-Pacific director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and Ray Acheson, director of Reaching Critical Will.

See the first entries:

A historic turning point for disarmament, by Tim Wright

The ban movement’s early impact, by Tim Wright

Further reading:

A nuclear weapons ban should first do no harm to the NPT, by Adam Mount and Richard Nephew

Can a treaty banning nuclear weapons speed their abolition? Development and Disarmament Roundtable by Joelien Pretorius, Polina Sinovets, Mustafa Kibaroglu

Does the fight over a nuclear weapons ban threaten global stability? by Heather Williams

Nuclear Roundup, by Jodi Lieberman. Sign up for a daily compilation of quality nuclear policy news published on the Web, around the world.