A nuclear test is carried out on an island in French Polynesia in 1971. In 2009 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 29 August the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. Credit: CTBTO

By Dennis Francis
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 5 2024 (IPS)

Today, the General Assembly convenes – for the fifteenth consecutive occasion – to observe the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, which is commemorated annually on 29 August.

On this day, 33 years ago, the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in Kazakhstan – where the former Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests – was permanently closed, marking a pivotal moment in the global effort to end unrestrained nuclear testing.

We observe this Day in honor and in remembrance of the victims, and in support of all the survivors – mindful of our collective responsibility to ensure that our moral compass stays attuned to the enduring impact of nuclear testing on people’s lives, livelihoods, health, and the environment.

Importantly, it is a day to reaffirm our commitment to ending nuclear testing – once and for all.

Despite the progress made to date – and the universal understanding of the existential dangers posed by nuclear weapons – the threat they pose still looms unacceptably large, exacerbated by a world once again torn apart by conflict and strife.

Geopolitical tensions are at their highest in decades – from Europe to the Middle East, from Africa to Asia. As a result, the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime faces significant setbacks.

In recent years, we have witnessed the return of dangerous, irresponsible, and reckless rhetoric – suggesting that the real risk of resort to nuclear arms may, once again, not be a far-fetched reality; be it intentionally or by accident.

We have also heard talk of maintaining the readiness of nuclear testing sites – with the possibility of resuming nuclear tests if deemed necessary.

We have even seen a nuclear-armed State revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. I am deeply concerned by these developments – as it seems that we have not yet learned from the painful lessons of the past.

I am deeply troubled by the message these actions send to all other nations – perhaps even emboldening some to reconsider their arms control commitments, thus further endangering global peace and security.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we do not turn back the clock and allow the same mistakes to occur once more – with even graver consequences. With even graver consequences.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) remains our best safety net to ensure that nuclear testing stays where it belongs – in the past. Since its adoption in 1996, the CTBT has garnered near-universal international support.

It is encouraging that, to date, 187 Member States have signed the treaty, and 178 have ratified it. I commend Papua New Guinea as the most recent Member State to ratify the treaty in 2023. The treaty’s benefits to international peace and security are evident in the numbers.

Before 1996, over two thousand nuclear weapons tests were conducted; and since then, there have been fewer than a dozen.

However – in the face of heightened geopolitical tensions – we cannot take anything for granted.

I take this opportunity to urge all Member States that have not yet signed or ratified the treaty to do so without delay – particularly the Annex 2 States, whose ratifications are essential for the treaty’s entry into force.

As I conclude, it is worth emphasizing that history reminds us of the horrors of war and the tragic misuse of human ingenuity to create even more lethal weapons.

And nuclear arms stand as the ultimate manifestation of this dark legacy.

Complacency in the face of these threats risk nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it. Now – more than ever – we must reaffirm our commitment to upholding and enforcing the norm against nuclear testing.

Any threats, preparations, or declarations of readiness to resume testing demand our united and unequivocal condemnation. And should any such tests occur, they must be met with swift and decisive collective action.

The time to end nuclear tests – once and for all – is now, not tomorrow, but NOW.

This article is based on remarks by the President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis, at the High-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

IPS UN Bureau

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The UN commemorated the International Day Against Nuclear Tests on August 29. It was established in 2009 by the UN General Assembly to recall the date of the official closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons testing site in today’s Kazakhstan on 29 August 1991. That one site alone saw 456 nuclear test explosions between 1949 and 1989. Credit: ICAN Darren Omitz

By Dennis Francis and Robert Floyd
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 2024 (IPS)

In 2009 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 29 August the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. This date recalled the official closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons testing site in today’s Kazakhstan on 29 August 1991; that one site alone having seen 456 nuclear test explosions between 1949 and 1989.

Between 1954 and 1984 there was on average at least one nuclear weapons test somewhere in the world every week, most with a blast far exceeding the bombing of Hiroshima; nuclear weapons exploding in the air, on and under the ground and in the sea.

Radioactivity from these test explosions spread across the planet deep into the environment. It can still be traced and measured today, in elephant tusks, in the coral of the Great Barrier Reef and in the deepest ocean trenches.

Meanwhile nuclear weapons stockpiles have grown exponentially. By the early 1980s there were some 60,000 nuclear weapons, most far more powerful than the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Public indignation grew. By the 1960s it was agreed in principle that ending explosive nuclear tests would be a vital brake on developing nuclear weapons and thereby promote nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The preamble to the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 talked boldly of achieving ‘the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time’. But then it took almost thirty more years and hundreds more nuclear test explosions before the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was agreed in 1996. This is one of the world’s landmark treaties. What a difference it has made.

Between 1945 and 1996 there were more than two thousand nuclear weapons tests. In the 28 years since 1996, there have been fewer than a dozen. In this century only six tests have been conducted, all by North Korea. The Treaty relies on a network of over 300 scientific monitoring facilities around the world that can quickly detect a nuclear test notably smaller than the Hiroshima explosion and pinpoint its location. No state anywhere on Earth can conduct a nuclear weapons test in secret.

The CTBT has near universal international support. 187 States have signed it and 178 have ratified it. With ten new ratifications since 2021, there is global momentum against renewed nuclear testing with enthusiasm among smaller states especially high. Despite these gains, current international uncertainty challenges the global norm against nuclear testing created by the CTBT.

What if we see renewed nuclear testing, or even the use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict? We would face a disastrous collapse in international trust and solidarity. A return to the days of unrestrained nuclear testing would leave no state safe, no community safe, no-one on Earth unaffected. There’s always plenty of talk about learning from mistakes. In this case let’s learn from successes.

The CTBT brings together the best of diplomacy with the very latest technology for an unambiguous common global good. It builds transparency and trust, just when transparency and trust look to be in dwindling supply. On the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting will be convened.

On this occasion, we call on all states to be open to the bold but principled decisions needed to reach a final global consensus under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. To end nuclear testing once and for all. Enough is enough.

Ambassador Dennis Francis is the President of the UN General Assembly, at its seventy-eighth session; Dr Robert Floyd is the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

IPS UN Bureau

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