More countries encouraged to ratify comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty

NIUE ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) last Wednesday, becoming the 162nd country to do so.
Niue’s ratification follows the country’s signature on April 2012.
Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the preparatory commission for the CTBT organisation, welcomed Niue’s ratification.
This consolidates the anti-testing norm in a region that has suffered so much from nuclear testing and sets an example for other states in the region and beyond.
The island nation of Niue is located in the South Pacific, where France, the United States of America and the United Kingdom have conducted a total of 263, mostly atmospheric, nuclear tests.
Commemorations for islanders affected by the 15 megaton Castle Bravo test  60 years ago (on March 1, 1954) were held last week at the Marshall Islands.
The region has shown a strong commitment to ban nuclear weapons and their testing by creating a nuclear-weapon-free  zone for the South Pacific.
This was established through the Treaty of Rarotonga, which was signed in 1985 and which came  into force the following year.
Among the 16 members of the Pacific Islands forum (Australia, the Cook Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati,  Nauru, Niue, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guina, Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu  and Vanuatu), only two have yet to ratify the CTBT – Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands – while two others have yet to sign and ratify – Tonga and Tuvalu.
Although the CTBT has been signed by 183 countries, of which 162 have also ratified, it can only enter into force after it has been ratified by the eight remaining nuclear capable countries; China,  Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

Thomas Mützelburg
Via email