New York-Sana
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons today, the first multilateral treaty to denuclearize to be concluded in more than two decades.
The treaty will enter into force after it reached 50 of the states parties required to ratify it, the latest of which was Honduras.
In a message on this occasion posted on the United Nations website, Guterres said that the treaty represents an important step towards creating a world free of nuclear weapons and strong evidence of global support for a multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament.
Guterres stressed that nuclear weapons pose increasing risks and the world must take urgent measures to ensure their elimination and prevent the catastrophic human and environmental consequences resulting from any use of them, and said that "the elimination of nuclear weapons remains the first priority of the United Nations with regard to disarmament."
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons stipulates the obligation of states that have ratified it to never under any circumstances develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess or store nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
The treaty was adopted on July 7, 2017 during a conference held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, and it was the first legally binding instrument for nuclear disarmament for two decades, and until now, the main nuclear powers, led by the United States, have not signed the agreement.
