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Peru was one of the first countries to sign the world’s first legally-binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations in July and opened for signature on September 20, 2017 on the margins of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.
According to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the treaty is an important step towards the universally-held goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
The new UN treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, acquisition, possession and stockpiling of nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices, as well as the use and threat of use of these weapons. Moreover, the treaty additionally provides a framework for the destruction of already existing nuclear weapons.
While Peru, among dozens of other countries, signed the treaty banning nuclear weapons as one of the firsts supporting the ideas of a controlled and consensual elimination of all nuclear weapons and of establishing nuclear weapons free zones, the nine nuclear-armed states – US, UK, France, Russia, Israel, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea – and some of their allies boycott the treaty completely.
A list of countries which signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons can be found on the UN webpage. The treaty will enter into force 90 days after 50 countries have ratified it.
Considering the consequences of using nuclear weapons for all of us, this day can’t come soon enough and will hopefully convince opposing parties to rethink their positions.
