Treaty stalls

News in Brief

The rate of ratifications of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has slowed dramatically.

Signatures are nice, but 50 states need to actually ratify the treaty, which the UN adopted on 7 July 2017, for it to come into force. In democracies, ratification usually requires parliament to pass a law.

In the year to September 2018, 19 states ratified the TPNW, roughly three countries every two months.

Since then, only four countries have followed suit, not even one ratification every two months on average.

This year, the last ratifier was Panama on 11 April. Keep track: www.tinyurl.com/peacenews3273