Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday - Jul 22, 2024
1:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Location
United Nations Office at Geneva
Categories
Join us in NPT PrepCom on 22 July!
As last year, IPB will be present also this year at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which will be held in United Nations Geneva from 22 July to 2 August 2024.
Untapping the potential of Nuclear Weapons Free Zones: the Importance of expanding NWFZs and the Role of Single States in a Shifting World Order
- Monday 22 July at 13.15 – 14.45
- Description: This side event is a round table discussion. The session will address the current geopolitical shifts that are leading toward polarization and possibly toward a new Cold War. In this context, Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZs) play a key role in providing stability and strategic balance by ensuring that these territories reject any presence of nuclear weapons and by advocating for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. While there are 5 existing NWFZs, only one had legal guarantees. Moreover, single states that do not find themselves in one of the zones remain excluded, representing an Achilles’ heel for the NWFZ regime and limits their ability to reduce nuclear tensions in our divided world.
The session will then shift focus to strategies that strengthen and enhance the resilience of NWFZs, emphasize their complementary role alongside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and advocate for a new study on NWFZs that includes more regions, single-state zones, and legal guarantees. Finally, we will explore the role of civil society in advocating for this study and the broader cause of nuclear disarmament.