The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force on January 22, 2021, after reaching the necessary 50 ratifications. Cuba signed the instrument on September 20, 2017, the day it was opened for signature at the United Nations headquarters, being the fifth country to ratify the instrument, on January 30, 2018, which is one more sample of its commitment to general and complete disarmament.
For its part, the Latin American and Caribbean region has also shown its commitment to nuclear disarmament with the Special Declarations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and in the adoption of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in America Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco, which established that our region was the first densely populated area in the world to be declared a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone).
On July 7, 2017, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the first Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The instrument was negotiated in New York, from March 27 to 31 and from June 15 to July 7, 2017, overcoming the opposition of the nuclear-weapon States and other States protected by the nuclear umbrella, which did not participate in the referred negotiations.
The Treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, manufacture and other forms of access to nuclear weapons, the transfer or reception and the parking; no help or incentives are allowed. In addition to enabling nuclear-armed countries to join and destroy their nuclear arsenals, the treaty introduces new issues such as victim assistance, environmental restoration, and gender issues in nuclear disarmament.
This Treaty is also the first instrument that specifically qualifies the use of nuclear weapons as a threat to humanity and an act contrary to International Law and International Humanitarian Law.
At the initiative of Cuba, and with the support of NAM, on September 26, 2013, the United Nations General Assembly held a High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament, the first dedicated to the issue in the history of the United Nations. The follow-up resolution, adopted on December 5, 2013, established the “International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” (September 26) and requested the urgent start of negotiations for a Convention for the prohibition and destruction of nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons.
General Assembly resolution 70/33 convened an open-ended working group, mandated to advance multilateral negotiations on disarmament and address concrete legal measures, binding provisions and standards that must be concluded to achieve and maintain a world without weapons. nuclear.
The adoption in 2016 of resolution 71/258 that convened the 2017 United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, with a view to their total elimination, is the immediate precedent of the Treaty.
About the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Cuba's position is based on the humanist thought of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, a tireless fighter for nuclear disarmament, who stated that: "In a nuclear war the collateral damage would be the life of humanity." Cuba, together with the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, has firmly and systematically demanded the prohibition and total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Among the principles of the foreign policy of the Republic of Cuba, included in the Constitution promulgated on February 24, 2019, it is reaffirmed that: “it promotes general and complete disarmament and rejects the existence, proliferation or use of nuclear weapons, of extermination en masse or others with similar effects, as well as the development and use of new weapons and new ways of waging war, such as cyberwar, that violate International Law.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPAN) makes an effective contribution to general and complete disarmament and international peace and security, by establishing a new norm of International Law that categorically prohibits nuclear weapons in all circumstances and nuclear tests all types.
The prolonged non-compliance with the provisions of Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was the main reason why the majority of the States Parties to the NPT negotiated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, in the General Assembly in 2017.
The more than 120 states that participated in the TPAN negotiations, seeking an express ban on nuclear weapons, demonstrate the change in the nature of the debate on nuclear disarmament and the imperative need for this pillar to be addressed at the same level as the rest.
The prohibition of nuclear weapons as a norm of International Law is a fundamental step on the path towards the total and irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons. With the entry into force of this Treaty, the international community clearly establishes that nuclear weapons are not only inhumane, immoral and ethically indefensible; but also illegal.
The Treaty stands as an instrument that aspires to have a universal scope, which stigmatizes the use of such weapons and which establishes a prohibitive norm against nuclear weapons and generates political pressure to achieve nuclear disarmament. Contrary to what some nuclear-weapon States claim, TPAN does not undermine the current international security architecture, but rather contributes effectively to the maintenance of international peace and security by outlawing the use of weapons of mass destruction with indiscriminate effects to life and environment.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, once in force, could help to implement the provisions of Article VI of the NPT. The TPAN does not undermine the integrity of the NPT in any way, but, once it enters into force, it will contribute to the fulfillment of its objectives with complementary efforts compatible with the provisions of Article VI.
Cuba will not give up its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
With the prohibition of nuclear weapons and their use, the thought of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz materializes.
Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz referred on numerous occasions to what nuclear weapons and Nuclear Disarmament represent, such as:
"The supporters of leading the world to a nuclear holocaust, rather than resigning themselves to the idea of men and peoples free from all forms of exploitation, will not pass." Speech at the closing ceremony of the XI World Festival of Youth and Students, held in the Plaza de la Revolución, on August 5, 1978
"The noise of weapons, threatening language, and arrogance on the international scene must cease. Enough of the illusion that the world's problems can be solved with nuclear weapons. Bombs will kill the hungry, the sick , to the ignorant, but they cannot kill hunger, disease, ignorance. " Address to the 34th session of the United Nations General Assembly, October 12, 1979
“In this supreme and decisive hour for all peoples, it is precisely imperialism and not socialism that refuses to put an end to the nuclear tests, and that rejects the only coherent, logical and acceptable policy for humanity: to stop the arms race, prohibit chemical weapons and other means of mass destruction, significantly reduce conventional weapons and initiate a program for the total elimination of nuclear weapons in the shortest possible time. This is the most heartfelt aspiration, not only of the men who build socialism, but of all responsible and sensible people on Earth”. Speech at the VIII NAM Summit, held in Harare, Zimbabwe, on September 2, 1986
“Today the world has tens of thousands of nuclear bombs fifty times more powerful, with carriers several times faster than sound and with absolute precision, with which our sophisticated species can self-destruct. At the end of the Second World War, which the peoples waged against fascism, a new power arose that took over the world and imposed the current absolutist and cruel order." Reflection: What is imposed immediately is an energy revolution, April 30, 2007
"Ideas can be more powerful than nuclear weapons." Reflection: ¨The empire in the dock ¨, December 14, 2010
“I really think that no country in the world should have nuclear weapons, and that this energy should be put at the service of the human species. Without that spirit of cooperation, humanity marches inexorably towards its own destruction. Among the citizens of Israel themselves, a people undoubtedly industrious and intelligent, many will not agree with this absurd and absurd policy that also leads them to total disaster. Reflection: “Genocidal cynicism” (Second part and final), November 13, 2011
“The Cold War began and the manufacture of thousands of thermonuclear weapons, increasingly destructive and precise, capable of annihilating the planet's population several times over. The nuclear confrontation however continued; weapons became more and more precise and destructive. Russia is not resigned to the unipolar world that Washington is trying to impose. Other nations such as China, India and Brazil are emerging with unusual economic strength. For the first time, the human species in a globalized world full of contradictions has created the capacity to destroy itself. " Reflection "The dangers that threaten us", March 8, 2010
"No country large or small has the right to possess nuclear weapons." Reflection "World peace hangs by a thread", January 12, 2012
"The only real way to avoid a global climate catastrophe would be to eliminate nuclear weapons." Reflection "The nuclear winter and peace", September 21, 2010
"Around 25,000 nuclear weapons in the hands of allied or antagonistic forces willing to defend the changing order, out of interest or necessity, reduce the rights of billions of people to virtually zero." Reflection "The roads that lead to disaster", March 21, 2012.
"The nuclear winter, irreconcilable with human survival, would be the consequence of the use of a small percentage of the nuclear weapons accumulated by the powers that possess them." Interview offered by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz to the national press after exercising his right to vote, on February 3, 2013, “Year 55 of the Revolution”