The TPNW Conference of Parties: What Is to Be Discussed?

Abstract

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is one of the most important developments of the modern era. This paper addresses the question posed, of what issues are to be discussed at the 1st Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty, which will occur one year after entry-into-force with fifty ratifications. In summary four main issues are identified: – The legal status of the Treaty, in the short-term – An issue of logic: irreversibility of the prohibition and the right of withdrawal – The legal status of the Treaty, in the long-term – Political division over the Treaty and the law: the persistent objector rule. Scope exists for further political initiative at the appropriate time regarding the Treaty itself, pertaining to the two central concepts of the Treaty – irreversibility and universality. Such initiative draws from an assessment of the contemporary state of customary international law, and whether the non-possession of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, might be attaining, or have the potential to attain, the status of an emerging peremptory norm. The minority of States opposing, irrespective of military power, may come to be regarded as persistent objectors to the norm. It is open for ratifying States to lead in such initiatives, consistent with the binding article in the Treaty to ensure universal adherence through encouraging non-state Parties to join. Such an initiative would serve the strengthening of the multilateral rules-based order.

Keywords

• nuclear
• treaty
• irreversibility
• universality
• peremptory norm
• persistent objector