The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, adopted with the aim of their eventual elimination. The treaty was endorsed by 122 countries at United Nations Headquarters in New York when it was first adopted on July 7, 2017. On October 24, 2020, it reached the fiftieth ratification required to enter into force, and since has gained further support, with eighty-six signatories and fiftytwo ratifications as of the end of January 2021.

Contained in its twenty articles are provisions that signatory states must agree not to develop, test, produce, manufacture, transfer, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons, or allow nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory. States possessing nuclear arsenals may join the treaty upon submission of a time-bound plan for the verified and irreversible elimination of their nuclearweapons program.