Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World the Need for a New Agenda

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 66b Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world : the need for a new agenda, published in 2002.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2000–2002

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2002	A/RES/57/59	Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world the need for a new agenda :	2,121	—
2001	A/RES/55/33[C]	Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world :#the need for a new agenda	—	—
2000	A/RES/54/54[G]	Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda	—	–

What’s in this document?

29 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that any possibility that nuclear weapons could be used represents a continued risk for humanity;

Calls upon all States to refrain from any action that could lead to a new nuclear arms race or that could impact negatively on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation;

Also calls upon all States to observe international treaties in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and to duly fulfil all obligations flowing from those treaties;

Calls upon all States parties to pursue, with determination and with continued vigour, the full and effective implementation of the substantial agreements reached at the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the outcome of which provides the requisite blueprint to achieve nuclear disarmament;

Calls upon the nuclear-weapon States to respect fully their existing commitments with regard to security assurances, pending the conclusion of multilaterally negotiated legally binding security assurances to all non-nuclear-weapon States parties, and agrees to prioritize this issue with a view to making recommendations to the 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;

Also calls upon the nuclear-weapon States to increase their transparency and accountability with regard to their nuclear weapons arsenals and their implementation of disarmament measures;

Reaffirms the necessity for the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to consider regular reports to be submitted by all States parties on the implementation of article VI of the TreatyError: Reference source not found as outlined in paragraph 15:12 of the 2000 Final Document,Error: Reference source not found and on paragraph 4 (c) of decision 2 of the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty;¹⁰

¹⁰See 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, Part I (NPT/CONF.1995/32 (Part I) and Corr.2), annex.

Calls upon nuclear-weapon States to implement the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons commitments to apply the principle of irreversibility by destroying their nuclear warheads in the context of strategic nuclear reductions and avoid keeping them in a state that lends itself to their possible redeployment;

Agrees on the importance and urgency of signatures and ratifications to achieve the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty;Error: Reference source not found

Calls for the upholding and maintenance of the moratorium on nuclear-weapon-test explosions or any other nuclear explosions pending the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty;

Underlines the urgency of the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in the context of the progress in implementing the international system to monitor nuclear weapons tests under the Treaty;

Agrees that the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be accorded priority and that nuclear-weapon States must live up to their commitments in this regard;

Agrees also that reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be carried out in a transparent and irreversible manner and that the reduction and elimination of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be included in the overall arms reductions negotiations. In this context, urgent action should be taken to achieve:

Further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons, based on unilateral initiatives and as an integral part of the nuclear arms reduction and disarmament process;

Further confidence-building and transparency measures to reduce the threats posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons;

Concrete agreed measures to reduce further the operational status of nuclear weapons systems;

The formalizing of existing informal bilateral arrangements regarding non-strategic nuclear reductions, such as the Bush-Gorbachev declarations of 1991, into legally binding agreements;

Calls upon nuclear-weapon States to undertake the necessary steps towards the seamless integration of all five nuclear-weapon States into a process leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons;

Agrees that the Conference on Disarmament should establish without delay an ad hoc committee to deal with nuclear disarmament;

Agrees also that the Conference on Disarmament should resume negotiations on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, taking into consideration both nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation objectives;

Agrees further that the Conference on Disarmament should complete the examination and updating of the mandate on the prevention of an arms race in outer space in all its aspects, as contained in its decision of 13 February 1992,¹¹ and re-establish an ad hoc committee as early as possible;

¹¹CD/1125.

Calls upon those three States that are not yet parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and operate unsafeguarded nuclear facilities to accede to the Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon States, promptly and without condition, and to bring into force the required comprehensive safeguards agreements, together with additional protocols, consistent with the Model Protocol Additional to the Agreement(s) between State(s) and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards approved by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency on 15 May 1997,¹² for ensuring nuclear non-proliferation, and to reverse clearly and urgently any policies to pursue any nuclear weapons development or deployment and refrain from any action that could undermine regional and international peace and security and the efforts of the international community towards nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation;

¹²International Atomic Energy Agency, INFCIRC/540 (Corrected).

Calls upon those States that have not yet done so to conclude full-scope safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency and to conclude additional protocols to their safeguards agreements on the basis of the Model Protocol;

Reaffirms the conviction that the establishment of internationally recognized nuclear-weapon-free zones on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned enhances global and regional peace and security, strengthens the nuclear non-proliferation regime and contributes towards realizing the objective of nuclear disarmament, and supports proposals for the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones where they do not yet exist, such as in the Middle East and South Asia;

Calls for the completion and implementation of the Trilateral Initiative between the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Russian Federation and the United States of America and for consideration to be given to the possible inclusion of other nuclear-weapon States;

Calls upon all nuclear-weapon States to make arrangements for the placing, as soon as practicable, of their fissile material no longer required for military purposes under International Atomic Energy Agency or other relevant international verification and to make arrangements for the disposition of such material for peaceful purposes in order to ensure that such material remains permanently outside military programmes;

Affirms that a nuclear-weapon-free world will ultimately require the underpinning of a universal and multilaterally negotiated legally binding instrument or a framework encompassing a mutually reinforcing set of instruments;

Acknowledges the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of resolution 55/33 C,¹³ and requests him, within existing resources, to prepare a report on the implementation of the present resolution;

¹³A/56/309.

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-eighth session the item entitled “Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda”, and to review the implementation of the present resolution at that session.

Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World the Need for a New Agenda

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