Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World : Accelerating the Implementation of Nuclear Disarmament Commitments

A/RES/78/42No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 99qTowards a nuclear-weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 2007–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/35

2024A/RES/79/35Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitmentsLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/42Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitmentsCompare with previous version
2021A/RES/76/49Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitmentsCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/75/65Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitmentsCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/74/46Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitmentsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear Non-Proliferation Nuclear Weapon States Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones Treaty Compliance

What does this mandate say?

26 operative paragraphs

Condemns unequivocally all nuclear threats, whether explicit or implicit, and irrespective of the circumstances, and calls upon all States, in particular the nuclear-weapon States, to reject any normalization of nuclear rhetoric and, in particular, the threat of use of nuclear weapons, which only serves to undermine the disarmament and non-proliferation regime and is against the Charter of the United Nations;

Stresses the fundamental role of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in achieving nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, and looks forward to achieving substantive progress during the eleventh review cycle, in order to strengthen the Treaty and its review process, overcoming the obstacles that prevented a substantive outcome in the two previous Review Conferences held in 2015 and 2022;

Reaffirms the continued validity of the decisions, resolutions and commitments as agreed to at the 1995, 2000 and 2010 Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, including the specific reaffirmation of the unequivocal undertaking of the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament, to which all States parties are committed under article VI of the Treaty;

Urges all State parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to implement their article VI obligations and to pursue multilateral negotiations without delay on effective measures for the achievement and maintenance of a nuclear weapon-free world, recalling in particular the commitment of the nuclear-weapon States to accelerating concrete progress on the steps leading to nuclear disarmament;

Calls upon all States to give due prominence to the humanitarian imperatives that underpin nuclear disarmament and to the urgency of achieving it, including new evidence presented at the Conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, and those imperatives should inform all deliberations, decisions and actions relating to nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, including within the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;

Urges the nuclear-weapon States to fulfil their commitment to undertaking further efforts to reduce and eliminate all types of nuclear weapons, deployed and non-deployed, including through unilateral, bilateral, regional and multilateral measures, as agreed by the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the outcome documents of the 2000 and 2010 Review Conferences;

Also urges the nuclear-weapon States to make concrete reductions in the role and significance of nuclear weapons in all military and security concepts, doctrines and policies, pending their total elimination as agreed by the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the outcome documents of the 2000 and 2010 Review Conferences;

Underlines the recognition by States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of the legitimate interest of non-nuclear-weapon States in the constraining by the nuclear-weapon States of the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and their ending the development of advanced new types of nuclear weapons, and calls upon the nuclear-weapon States to take urgent steps in this regard;

Urges all nuclear-weapon States to immediately lower the operational readiness of nuclear-weapon systems in a verifiable and transparent manner with a view to ensuring that all nuclear weapons are removed from high alert status;

Encourages all States that are part of regional alliances that include nuclear-weapon States to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in their collective security doctrines, pending their total elimination;

Encourages States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to advance measures on the agreed principles of transparency, verifiability and irreversibility, taking into account that they are strongly interrelated and are not an end in themselves and are not a prerequisite to commence nuclear disarmament;

Stresses the necessity for enhanced transparency by the nuclear-weapon States with regard to their nuclear weapons capabilities and the implementation of their article VI obligations and nuclear disarmament-related commitments, and urges nuclear-weapon States to implement their nuclear disarmament obligations and commitments, both qualitative and quantitative, in a manner that strengthens accountability and enables all States parties to regularly monitor progress, including through a standard detailed reporting format, thereby enhancing transparency and increasing mutual confidence, and facilitating the evidence-based evaluation of progress towards the full implementation of article VI and nuclear disarmament commitments;

Urges the nuclear-weapon States to report at least twice during a Review Conference cycle at appropriate intervals, and to include in their reports to be submitted during the eleventh review cycle of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons concrete and detailed information concerning the implementation of their obligations and commitments on nuclear disarmament;

Encourages States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to improve the measurability of the implementation of nuclear disarmament obligations and commitments, including but not limited to measures on improved and more structured reporting by the nuclear-weapon States, tools such as a set of benchmarks, timelines and/or similar criteria, in order to ensure and facilitate the objective evaluation of progress, as well as the establishment of a structured dialogue on this issue at the Preparatory Committee meetings and at the Review Conference on these improved and more structured reports, facilitated by the Chairs of the Preparatory Committee meetings, who will provide a joint report to each Review Conference that includes specific recommendations, targets and indicators, to improve the monitoring of and reporting on article VI and disarmament-related commitments;

Encourages the nuclear-weapon States, as part of their national reporting, to include details on their plans related to the modernization of nuclear weapons; their nuclear capabilities, including quantity, type and status of nuclear warheads, as well as delivery vehicles; doctrinal issues; risk reduction measures; de-alerting measures; quantity of fissile material; and the number and type of weapons and delivery systems they have disarmed;

Encourages further steps by all nuclear-weapon States to ensure the irreversible removal of all fissile material designated by each nuclear-weapon State as no longer required for military purposes, and calls upon all States to support, within the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the development of appropriate nuclear disarmament verification capabilities and legally binding verification arrangements, thereby ensuring that such material remains permanently outside military programmes in a verifiable and irreversible manner;

Calls upon all States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to work towards the full implementation of the resolution on the Middle East adopted at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is inextricably linked to the indefinite extension of the Treaty, and which remains valid until fully implemented;

Urges the co-sponsors of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East to exert their utmost efforts with a view to ensuring the early establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction as contained in the 1995 resolution on the Middle East, including through support for the convening of the conference on the establishment of such a zone;

Calls upon all concerned parties referred to in decision 73/546 of 22 December 2018 to actively engage in the sessions of the conference to elaborate a treaty to establish a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by all States of the region;

Calls upon all States parties to spare no effort to achieve the universality of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and in this regard urges India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to the Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon States promptly and without conditions, and to place all their nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and further calls upon South Sudan to join the Treaty at the earliest opportunity;

Urges the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to fulfil its commitments, to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes, to return, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to adhere to its International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement, with a view to achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful, complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and calls for diplomatic efforts to this end;

Calls upon all Member States to reflect on the vast amount of resources dedicated to the maintenance, development and modernization of nuclear arsenals and to consider whether these resources could be better utilized in pursuit of a better future as envisaged in the Sustainable Development Goals;

Calls upon Member States to continue to support efforts to identify, elaborate, negotiate and implement further effective legally binding measures for nuclear disarmament, inter alia, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and welcomes the outcomes of the first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty, including the political declaration and action plan;

Urges all States to exert all efforts to advance diplomatic dialogue and work together towards overcoming obstacles that are inhibiting substantive work within the international disarmament machinery to advance the agenda of nuclear disarmament, particularly through multilateral negotiations;

Recommends that additional measures be taken to advance nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation education, in particular to increase awareness of the risks and catastrophic impacts and humanitarian consequences of any nuclear detonation, recognizing the important contributions made by academia, civil society and victims of nuclear weapons to this end;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-ninth session, under the item entitled “General and complete disarmament”, the sub-item entitled “Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments” and to review the implementation of the present resolution at that session.

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