At United Nations Headquarters in New York, on 7 July 2017, the United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, document A/CONF.229/2017/8. The president was Elayne Whyte Gómez, Costa Rica’s ambassador in Geneva. The vote: 122 in favour, one against (the Netherlands), one abstention (Singapore). It was not signed that day; signature opened on 20 September. Nuclear-armed states did not take part in the vote.

The adopted treaty is not the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, nor the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996, nor the September signing ceremony, nor the Nobel Prize given to ICAN later in 2017. The depositary is the Secretary-General. Authentic texts: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish.

Article 1: each party undertakes never to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; never to transfer or receive the transfer of or control over them, directly or indirectly; never to use or threaten to use them; never to assist, encourage or induce; never to seek or receive assistance to engage in a prohibited activity; never to allow any stationing, installation or deployment in its territory.

Article 2: a declaration whether it had or has nuclear weapons or whether any were deployed on its territory. Article 3: IAEA safeguards, based on the NPT model for non-nuclear-weapon states. Article 4: procedures for an armed state joining: a time-bound plan for verified and irreversible destruction, or verification if it eliminated them before becoming a party. Article 16: no reservations. Article 17: withdrawal after 12 months, not while a party to an armed conflict.

Article 13: open for signature from 20 September 2017 at UN Headquarters. Article 15: the Treaty shall enter into force 90 days after the deposit of the fiftieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. Honduras deposited the fiftieth instrument on 24 October 2020; the Treaty entered into force on 22 January 2021. Article 18: relationship with other agreements, including the NPT.

The July act is not the later list of parties, nor the New York signing ceremony of 20 September.

Image: Elayne Whyte Gómez, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva, 3 May 2016 (WSIS, ITU/D.Woldu); ITU Pictures, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9. She presided over the adopting conference.

Source consulted: Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Treaty text: A/CONF.229/2017/8: Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, 7 July 2017.