The Humanitarian Initiative and the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

Author: Jenny Nielsen

In: in Doyle, James (ed.) Nuclear Safeguards, Security, and Nonproliferation Achieving Security with Technology and Policy, pp. 37-58

The ‘humanitarian initiative’ in nonproliferation diplomacy leading to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty — has its origins in a reference in the Final Document of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference to the deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. However, Nielsen notes that the international and civil society diplomacy that led to the success of the Ban Treaty have not yet changed the national policies of nuclear weapons states. It remains an open question if any of these states will ever support the Ban Treaty.

Available online at:

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803271-8.00002-3