• Text of Treaty
• Basic Overview
  • Secretary-General's Report on the CTBT, July 2007
• Why is the CTBT important?
• CTBT Article XIV Conferences
  • 2007
  • 2005
  • 2003
  • 2001
• Press Releases from CTBTO
• Further Information

• The CTBT bans "all nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" and establishes an extensive International Monitoring System and allows for short-notice on-site inspections.


• The CTBT was negotiated in Geneva by the Conference on Disarmament and was adopted by the General Assembly as a resolution (A/RES/50/245) on 10 September 1996 and opened for signature in September 1996.


• Under the terms of the treaty, all forty-four countries with nuclear power plants must sign and ratify before it becomes legally binding, or "enters into force" (EIF).


• The Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty has been signed by 177 countries and ratified by 138. Out of the 44 Annex II States (nuclear capable states whose ratification is necessary for the EIF), 38 have ratified. Three have not even signed. See the CTBT Organization website for the latest signators and ratifiers.


• Article XIV of the CTBT allows for a special conference on accelerating Entry-Into-Force if the treaty has not yet entered-into-force. The conference does not have the power to amend the treaty.


• In October 1999, the first such Conference on Facilitating the Entry-Into-Force of the CTBT was held in Vienna. Ninety-two states unanimously adopted a Final Declaration at that meeting hearing over fifty statements examining measures consistent with international law to accelerate the Treaty's ratification.

  More background information
  CTBT's Central Features
  Summary of CTBT Treaty Articles
  Chronology of Key Events in the Effort to End Nuclear Weapons Testing: 1945-1999
  Secretary-General's Report on the CTBT, July 2007

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty: virtually verifiable now
VERTIC Brief no. 3, April 2004

Why is the CTBT important?

The CTBT has been seen as an essential step toward nuclear disarmament for over four decades. It bans all nuclear tests, anytime, anywhere and comprehensively. Without the CTBT, the United States, Russia, China, France the United Kingdom, India and Pakistan are not prohibited from conducting further underground test explosions. The effort to establish an international norm against nuclear testing must not be abandoned after the enormous effort on the part of governments and NGOs, especially when the ratifications of only thirteen states is required for Entry-Into-Force.

The Treaty is intended to stop the qualitative nuclear arms race. The CTBT does not prohibit research on nuclear weapons, including subcritical tests. But it is very difficult, if not impossible, to develop new nuclear weapons without nuclear test explosions. This explains why all Nuclear Weapons States have resisted such a treaty for over four decades. Now that an agreement on the test ban has been reached and Entry-Into-Force is within reach, the effort to establish an international norm against nuclear testing must be actively pursued. Should the CTBT not enter into force, all the enormous effort on the part of governments and NGOs would be lost.

The CTBT will prevent further horrendous health and environmental damage caused by nuclear test explosions once and for all.

The CTBTO (the organization of the CTBT and the Secretariat of the Conferences) is already making great strides to establish a wide-ranging monitoring and verification system, including an International Monitoring System and an International Data Centre, which together with national technical means and ten of thousands of civilian monitoring stations, will detect and deter would-be testers, and therefore, will build confidence between all nations that nuclear testing has stopped.

CTBT Article XIV (Entry-Into-Force) Conferences

The Entry-Into-Force (EIF) Conference are opportunities for:

• announcing ratifications and signatures;
  
• calling on those states that have not yet signed or ratified the CTBT to join the international consensus to end nuclear testing;
  
• urging states with active nuclear weapon research programmes and test sites to take actions that would reinforce the CTBT and support its goals, such as refraining from activities at test sites that might be construed as CTBT violations, halting research, development and production of nuclear warheads based on modifications of existing designs, that give them new military capabilities;
  
• examining ways and means of removing obstacles which delay Entry-Into-Force;
  
• discussing and agreeing on specific measures to convince the last holdout states to support the test ban;
  
• support for the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organisation in Vienna that has made significant progress in setting up the International Monitoring System and International Data Center, so that the CTBT's verification system is ready by the time the treaty enters into force;
  
• condemning any future testing; and,
  
• calling upon governments, businesses and peoples to take decisive action in reaction to any future testing.
  
  What can NGOs do?
• contact Reaching Critical Will, who will be coordinating an NGO statement to be delivered to the CTBT States Parties at the Conference;
  
• make an appointment to speak with a representative at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or equivalent and encourage the Foreign Minister to attend the conference to publicly urge the CTBT hold out states to promptly ratify the Treaty; to contact your government's mission, see RCW's Governmental Database;
  
• contact the CTBTO Secretariat and register your group to attend;
  
• monitor the CTBT EIF progress through the Reaching Critical Will website and react to what your government does or does not say; and,
  
• publicize your views and your government's policies on the CTBT to the press in your country.

2007 Article XIV Conference

The fifth conference on facilitating the Entry Into Force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (Article XIV Conference) was held on 17-18 September 2007 at the Hofburg Congress Centre, Heldenplatz, A-1014, Vienna, Austria.

The Treaty opened for signature eleven years ago and, with 177 signatures and 140 ratifications, is close to universality. The Conference directed particular attention at the 44 so-called Annex 2 States whose ratification is a precondition for the Treaty’s entry into force. Only 34 of the 44 have already ratified the Treaty. The ten remaining States are: China, Colombia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States of America. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan have not yet signed the Treaty.

• Draft Rules of Procedure
• Draft Provisional Agenda
• Aide Memoire for NGOs

Conference highlights:

• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message for the conference, delivered by H.E. Sergio Duarte, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. Ban remarked that the eleventh anniversay of the CTBT's opening for signature is a time not for celebration but for "re-dedication to the noble work that lies ahead in achieving the Treaty's entry into force. Persistent efforts on the part of States and civil society will be required to achieve that historic goal."


• CTBTO Executive Secretary Mr. Tibor Toth's statement. He noted that since the last Article XIV conference, twenty more states have signed or ratified the CTBT, "bringing it significantly closer to the level of ratifications of other WMD prohibition norms." In addition, 76 more certified facilities of the verification regime have been built, up to 211 from 135 in 2005. He also mentioned the DPRK nuclear weapon test in October 2006, which was "regrettable and disquieting" in its challenge to norm against nuclear testing, but also validated the CTBTO's verification system, and it "served to refocus the attention of the international community on the relevance of the CTBT as a key disarmament and non-proliferation instrument." He also called upon the Annex II states who haven't signed the Treaty to "consider the value of the CTBT for their national and international security."


• The statements from the Foreign Ministers of Austria and Costa Rica, H.E. Ursula Plassnik and H.E. Bruno Stagno Ugarte, who share the presidency of the Conference. Plassnik noted, "This shared presidency by two CTBT Member States representing two different geographic regions symbolizes the global support for the Treaty." He emphasized that the collection of international organizations in Vienna, including OPEC, UNIDO, the IAEA, and the CTBT, provides a platform to promote new ideas on how to address human security challenges. Meanwhile, Ugarte identified arguments for the universalization of the CTBT, including that the CTBT, "as an important non-proliferation instrument . . . constrains the development and qualitative improvement of new and more advanced nuclear weapons; it severely constrains the capacity of non-nuclear weapon states to develop new nuclear weapons and it prevents the proliferation of materials, technologies and knowledge that can be used for nuclear weapons." He also emphasized that the CTBT "not only contributes to international, regional and national peace and security, it also helps prevent further devastation of human health and the global environment," and that it "would greatly reduce the climate of distrust and discontent which has been penetrating the field of disarmament, which distorts all discussions and which makes it even more difficult to address some of today's key challenges posed by the threats of nuclear proliferation."


• The statement by Ambassador Jaap Ramaker, Special Representative to promote the CTBT ratification process. Ramaker said, “the world needs a complete ban on nuclear weapon test explosions. It needs the CTBT. This Treaty will cap the development of ever more destructive weapons. It constitutes the last barrier against a nuclear programme turning into a nuclear weapons programme.” In his capacity as Special Representative, Ramaker had visited most of the Annex 2 non-ratifying countries. He pointed out their primary concerns: the financial implications and lack of resources; the need to give higher priority to the issue of nuclear non-proliferation; and, on the positive side, a growing interest in the concrete benefits of the verification regime.


• The NGO statement, read by Lilly Gundacker of the Women's Federation for World Peace International.


• The Final Declaration and Measures to Promote the Entry Into Force of the CTBT, in which states "affirmed the importance and urgency of signatures and ratifications without delay to achieve early entry into force of the Treaty as one of the practical steps for the systematic and progressive efforts towards nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation". They also called upon all states to sustain the voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosions, and to "refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of the Treaty. In addition, the document outlines eleven practical measures to promote the Treaty's entry into force.

Statements:

• NGO Statement
• WILPF Statement
• All governmental and organizational statements to the Conference are on the CTBTO website.

Side Events:

Monday - Tuesday, 17-18 September 2007
PTS Exhibition:
"Verifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban"
Experts from the CTBTO's technical divisions will demonstrate how a seismic station works, how data is processed, and how an on-site inspection is conducted. The 2007 re-release of the CTBTO Movie "CTBT: For a Safer and More Secure World", which includes CTBTO findings with regards to the announced nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in October 2006, will also be shown in the exhibition area.
Time and Place: all day, Dachfoyer, Hofburg Congress Centre

Tuesday, 18 September 2007
VERTIC and ACA Seminar
"The CTBT Achievements, challenges and opportunities"
The Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC) and the Arms Control Association (ACA) will be holding a seminar on political and verification challenges and opportunities for the Treaty and its verification system.
Time and place: 13:00 - 15:00, Kleiner Redoutensaal, Hofburg Congress Centre

Relevant Publications:

CTBTO Press Releases

• 17 September 2007: Summary of statements from the first day of the Conference
• 18 September 2007: Summary of the Final Declaration from the second day of the Conference
• 18 September 2007: Feature article on conclusion of conference

CTBTO Spectrum: 2007 Article XIV Conference Special Edition

• "Renewed opportunities to bring the CTBT into force," by Dr. Rebecca Johnson
• "CTBT: going the last mile to banish nuclear weapon testing," by Dr. Hans Blix
• "2007 Article XIV Conference: sending powerful signals for CTBT's entry into force," by Ambassador Jaap Rapmaker
• "History and mechanism of the Article XIV Conferences," by Dr. Andrea Wurm

2005 Article XIV Conference

21-23 September 2005
New York, NY, USA

Parties to the Comprehensive nuclear Test-Ban Treaty gathered in New York City for the fourth Entry-Into-Force (Article XIV) Conference from 21 to 23 September 2005. These conferences are held every two years so signatories to and ratifiers of the CTBT can strategize about how to facilitate the CTBT's early entry-into force. Although the conference this year took place at a time when the CTBT appears particularly embattled, it was clear that slow progress on the Treaty's entry into force is being made. A few states, lead by the United States, continue to refuse to ratify, but the CTBT is gradually gaining momentum and becoming an international legal norm, through its 176 signatures and 125 ratifications as well as its increasingly operational verification system, two-thirds of which has now been built.

The Conference's highlights include:

• Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement to the conference. Annan told the conference that although the treaty is an effective measure of disarmament and non-proliferation, the delay of its entry into force heightens the risk that "someone, somewhere, will test nuclear weapons." He also advised the group to take heart, because "progress on difficult nuclear issues is possible." [see the UN press coverage of Annan's statement here]
  
• Ambassador Jaap Ramaker's Report on his activities as Special Representative to promote the ratification process, including his impressions of the status of those Annex II states that have not signed or ratified. He said he thought Vietnam's ratification could be expected in the not too distant future. Despite Indian Prime Minister Singh's declaration that India seeks to live up to the same nonproliferation standards that the five original nuclear weapon states are expected to observe, Ramaker was given to understand that in his promotional visits he "was not welcome in India."
  
• Ambassador Tibor Toth's statement as the new Executive Secretary of the Prepatory Commission for the CTBT Organization (CTBTO). He reported that 217 of 321 monitoring stations have been built, 115 of which were built in the last two years. The information flow over the last two years has also nearly tripled, from five to 14 gigabytes of data per day. Executive Secretary Ambassador Toth replaced Wolfgang Hoffman who stepped down after 10 years of commendable service.
  
• Antigua and Barbuda's announcement of its ratification of the CTBT. Antigua and Barbuda informed the conference that its instrument of ratification was being deposited during the conference proceedings.
  
• Haiti's announcement of its intended ratification of the CTBT. Haiti will soon be publicly announcing a Haitian law required for them to ratify, and will deposit their ratification as soon as the law has been made public. The connection between disarmament and development, with arms spenditures diverting needed money from development, and the CTBTO's potential contributions to warning small states about seismic disasters were both important factors in Haiti's decision to ratify.
  
• the United States being a no-show at the Conference, despite being a signatory. The NGO statement advised the conference that the one nation should not be allowed to determine whether the entire world will continue to face nuclear annihilation.
  
• the NGO Statement to the Conference. The NGO statement, endorsed by 33 NGOs, was delivered by Daryl Kimball to a rapt audience, and can be viewed on video here.