PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
107 states commit to 'prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons' as
NPT Review Conference concludes
22 May 2015
NEW YORK- As the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference
ended, over 100 governments have committed to work for the prohibition and elimination of
nuclear weapons by endorsing the “Humanitarian Pledge”.
While the United States and the United Kingdom declared failure over the Middle East, the
draft outcome document was deeply flawed on disarmament. It contained no meaningful
commitments on nuclear disarmament, rolls back on previous agreements and was not
negotiated amongst states parties. A wide range of governments from all regions admitted
that the text fell dramatically short of making credible progress.
Based on the evidence of the humanitarian impacts from any nuclear weapon detonation
and an acknowledgment of the increasing risk of use of nuclear weapons,
the humanitarian pledge reflects a fundamental shift in the international discourse on
nuclear disarmament over the past five years. It is the latest indication that governments
are preparing for diplomatic action after the Review Conference.
The wide and growing international support for this historic pledge sends a signal that a
majority of the world’s governments are ready to move forward with the prohibition of
nuclear weapons, even if the nuclear weapon states are not ready to participate.
“Regardless of what has happened here today, the humanitarian pledge must be the basis
for the negotiations of a new treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons”, says Beatrice Fihn,
Executive Director of ICAN. “It has been made clear that the nuclear weapon states are not
interested in making any new commitments to disarmament, so now it is up to the rest of
the world to start a process to prohibit nuclear weapons by the 70th anniversary of the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
ABOUT ICAN
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of more than
400 non-governmental organisations in 95 countries. We are calling on governments to
launch negotiations in 2015 on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, which would place
them on the same legal footing as chemical and biological weapons and help pave the way
to their complete elimination.
RESOURCES
The humanitarian pledge
States that have endorsed the humanitarian pledge
Principles of a ban treaty
CONTACT
Beatrice Fihn
beatrice@icanw.org
+41(078) 613-0472
Tim Wright
tim@icanw.org
+1(646) 714-8131
Daniela Varano
daniela@icanw.org
+41(0) 787 262 645