United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

Subject: International Relations

Section: International organisation

Context: Review of NPT

• The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA is an Office of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as the Department for Disarmament Affairs, part of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the General Assembly in July 1997.
• Its goal is to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and the strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapon It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, especially landmines and small arms, which are often the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts.
• The United Nations has sought to eliminate such weapons ever since its establishment. The first resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1946 established a Commission to deal with problems related to the discovery of atomic energy among others.
• A number of multilateral treaties have since been established with the aim of preventing nuclear proliferation and testing, while promoting progress in nuclear disarmament. These include the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests In The Atmosphere, In Outer Space And Under Water, also known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT),the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was signed in 1996 but has yet to enter into force, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) , which will enter into force on 22 January 2021.
• A number of bilateral and plurilateral treaties and arrangements seek to reduce or eliminate certain categories of nuclear weapons, to prevent the proliferation of such weapons and their delivery vehicles.  These range from several treaties between the United States of America and Russian Federation as well as various other initiatives, to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, and the Wassenaar Arrangement.
• The United Nations Secretariat supports efforts aimed at the non-proliferation and total elimination of nuclear weapons. “Securing Our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament” considers nuclear weapons in the framework of “disarmament to save humanity.”

Treaties Involved in the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

The following treaties form the basis for the existing NWFZs:

• Treaty of Tlatelolco — Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Treaty of Rarotonga — South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty
• Treaty of Bangkok — Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone
• Treaty of Pelindaba — African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty
• Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia

Non-Proliferation Treaty

• The NPT is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to foster the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of disarmament.
• The treaty was signed in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. Presently, it has 190 member states.
  • India is not a member.
• It requires countries to give up any present or future plans to build nuclear weapons in return for access to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• It represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.
• Nuclear-weapon states parties under the NPT are defined as those that manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive devices before 1^st January, 1967.

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

• CTBT was negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996.
• The Treaty intends to ban all nuclear explosions – everywhere, by everyone. It was opened for signature in 1996 and since then 182 countries have signed the Treaty, most recently Ghana has ratified the treaty in 2011.
• A comprehensive test ban has been defined as a “zero yield” test ban that would prohibit supercritical hydro-nuclear tests but not sub-critical hydrodynamic nuclear tests.
• The Treaty will enter into force after all 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty will ratify it.
• These States had nuclear facilities at the time the Treaty was negotiated and adopted.
• As of August 2011, 36 of these States have ratified the Treaty. Eight States still need to do so: China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.
• India,North Korea and Pakistan have not yet signed the Treaty.
• All three have also undertaken tests after 1996; India and Pakistan in May 1998 and North Korea six times between 2006 and 2017.
• The CTBT has therefore not entered into force and lacks legal authority.

Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

• The Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted on July 7, 2017. The treaty entered into force on January 22, 2021. The treaty is the first legally binding international agreement that aim to eliminate nuclear weapons completely.
• The treaty was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2017. However, only 120 members have signed the treaty. The major nuclear powers of the world including India have not supported the treaty. The other major nuclear powers that did not support the treaty were China, US, France, Japan, North Korea, Russia, Pakistan and Israel.

Key Features

• The treaty prohibits the use of nuclear weapons on national territories.
• The signatories should provide adequate assistance to individuals affected by the testing of nuclear weapons. They should also take required environmental remediation in areas under its jurisdiction that was contaminated as result of nuclear weapon testing.
• A state party joining the treaty should declare if it has eliminated its previous nuclear weapon programme. The party should also disclose if it holds nuclear weapons of other countries in its territories. In case if the party holds other countries’ nuclear weapons it must remove them before signing the treaty.
• The non-nuclear weapon states should have a minimum safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

NSG

• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was created following the explosion in 1974 of a nuclear device by a non-nuclear-weapon State (India), which demonstrated that nuclear technology transferred for peaceful purposes could be misused.
• It is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.
• The grouping has 48 participating governments and the NSG Guidelines are implemented by each member in accordance with its national laws and practices.
• The NSG takes decisions by consensus.

Australia Group

• The Australia Group (AG) is an informal forum of countries which, through the harmonisation of export controls, seeks to ensure that exports do not contribute to the development of chemical or biological weapons.
• The formation of the Australia Group (AG) in 1985 was prompted by Iraq’s use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
• Coordination of National export control measures assists Australia Group members to fulfil their obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological & Toxin Weapons Convention.
• The Australia Group has a list of 54 compounds that are identified to be regulated in global trade. This list includes more items than the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• It has 43 members (including the European union). The members work on a consensus basis. The annual meeting is held in Paris, France.
• India joined the Australia Group (AG) on 19 January 2018.
• The Australia Group decided to admit India as the Group’s 43rd Participant through a consensus decision.

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)

• It is an informal and voluntary partnership among 35 countries to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying greater than 500 kg payload for more than 300 km.
• The members are thus prohibited from supplying such missiles and UAV systems that are controlled by the MTCR to non-members.
• The decisions are taken by consensus of all the members.
• It was established in April 1987 by G-7 countries – USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan.
• In 1992, the focus of the regime extended to on the proliferation of missiles for the delivery of all types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), i.e., nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• It is not a legally-binding treaty. Hence, no punitive measures could be taken against non-compliance to the guidelines of the regime.
• These efforts of non-proliferation of ballistic missile systems had further been strengthened by “The International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation”, also known as the Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC), which was established on 25 November 2002 as an arrangement to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles with 136 UN member countries including India.
• India was inducted into the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2016 as the 35^th member.
• China is not a member of this regime.

Wassenaar Arrangement

• The Wassenaar Arrangement is a voluntary export control regime. The Arrangement, formally established in July 1996, has 42 members who exchange information on transfers of conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies.
  • Dual-use refers to the ability of a good or technology to be used for multiple purposes – usually peaceful and military.
• Wassenaar Arrangement’s Secretariat is in Vienna, Austria.
• It has 42 member states comprising mostly NATO and EU states.
• India was inducted to the Wassenaar Arrangement on 7 December, 2017 as the 42nd member.