The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is all set to enter into force as Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the treaty on October 24, 2020. The treaty will thus enter into force 90 days later on January 22, 2021. This is a timely opportunity to assess what the treaty is about, what it means for non-proliferation regime and for efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.
The head of one of the chief campaigners of the treaty, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Beatrice Fihn said that this was, “a new chapter for nuclear disarmament. Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned.”[1]While UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres said that, “It represents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations.”[2]
