TPNW meeting of States Parties next week
Posted: 20th June 2022
States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and civil society supporters will come together in Vienna next week for the first Meeting of States Parties.
The meeting comes as nuclear threats rise in Europe due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in other regions such as North East Asia and South Asia, and as a nuclear arms race accelerates – with increased nuclear weapons budgets and modernisation/expansion of nuclear weapons systems. Last week the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) warned that nuclear disarmament could become ‘a thing of the past’.
86 countries, representing about 1/3rd of the world’s population, have signed the TPNW, with 62 of these countries having now ratified it making the treaty binding on them. None of the nuclear armed or allied countries have joined, or seem likely to do so. Never-the-less, the TPNW meeting is important to strengthen global norms against the use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict, and to promote nuclear disarmament.
Key issues for the meeting include how to: