Reason prevails
Despite resistance of major powers, UN approves treaty to abolish nuclear weapons
After months of negotiations, and in spite of a boycott by major world powers, the UN approved on Friday, July 7, a new treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. In all, 122 countries endorsed the agreement, which now needs to be ratified by at least 50 for it to come into effect.
Among other things, the treaty bans States Parties from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, acquiring or stockpiling nuclear weapons and it contains mechanisms for nations willing to destroy their arsenals. International treaties are legally binding, which means that compliance by States Parties is mandatory.
The decision was celebrated internationally at a time when the planet has come dangerously close to nuclear conflict, with countries such as North Korea investing heavily in the production of new weapons. According to the latest data from the Federation of American Scientists, nine countries together possess 14,900 warheads.
Another alarming indicator was the resetting, in January 2017, of the “Doomsday Clock”, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 to illustrate the imminence of a nuclear explosion. According to this clock, whose hands move closer to midnight as the risk of nuclear war increases, the world is just two and a half minutes away from nuclear catastrophe. This is the closest it has come to midnight since 1953.
Brazil was one of the countries leading the resolution that prompted the adoption of the treaty and the decision was celebrated by the Ministry of Foreign Relations. In a press release issued on Friday, the Ministry said that “the engagement of Brazil in negotiations that aim to free the world of nuclear weapons reflects, on the international level, the country’s constitutional commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy” and called on other nations to join the agreement.
Once Brazil signs the new treaty, it will undergo an internal ratification process that involves an analysis of the text by the Executive and the Legislative. However, despite the apparent willingness of the federal government to ensure a rapid confirmation of the instrument, previous experiences indicate that the procedure could dampen the enthusiasm of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, namely the case of the ATT (Arms Trade Treaty), whose ratification has been pending for more than three years.
The text of the ATT has been stalled in the Public Security and Combating Organized Crime Committee of the Lower House of Congress since December 2015. The sponsor of the bill to ratify the treaty, Congressman Lincoln Portela, was appointed in May 2016, but he has yet to present his bill.
Jefferson Nascimento, adviser for the Foreign Policy program at Conectas, said Brazil’s leadership in the debate on nuclear disarmament deserves to be recognized, “but the country needs to demonstrate that its commitment to peace and international security is consistent and genuine”.
“We observed a similar willingness by Brazil in the negotiations on the ATT, but this engagement was not matched in the ratification process, which remains stuck in the Legislative. We hope that this new positive move by Brazilian diplomacy will allow both agreements to proceed quickly towards ratification,” he added.
Resistance
Discussions on the agreement had to overcome the boycott by the world’s nine nuclear powers – Russia, United States, France, China, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, in order of the size of their arsenals – and by other countries that have warheads in their territories, such as Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
These countries generally justify their opposition with a defense of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons), which has been in effect since 1970. They believe that stockpiles need to be gradually reduced, but not abolished, given the risk that non-signatory countries of the treaty, such as North Korea, could threaten world security and stability.
The claims of the nuclear powers contrast with the vision of the abolitionist countries, for which the complete security of humanity depends on the elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction – like what happened with chemical and biological weapons that were banned by conventions in 1993 and 1975, respectively. Nuclear weapons, until now, are the last category of weapons of mass destruction that are permitted by the international community.
According to Cristian Wittmann, a member of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) and associate professor at Unipampa (Federal University of Pampa), the importance of the new treaty – in spite of the boycott by the nuclear-armed States – lies in the “stigma that surrounds these weapons, rekindling the debate on the need to abolish them”.
Wittmann explained that at the end of the Cold War it was considered normal for some countries to threaten the rest of humanity, posing an enormous risk of a voluntary or involuntary nuclear detonation. In an interview with Conectas, he said the treaty will raise the stigma surrounding nuclear weapons and, subsequently, the pressure for nuclear-armed States to change their doctrines and destroy their arsenals.
The expert also said that, unlike what is claimed by the countries opposing the initiative, the new treaty complements the NPT by providing the opportunity to comply with one of its articles that requires States Parties to negotiate nuclear disarmament. He said Brazil could quickly ratify the treaty and contribute towards the universalization efforts “so that, one day, all nuclear weapons can be eliminated”.
