Is the NPT compatible with the TPNW?

In this Think Piece we argue, from the Nuclear Truth Project standpoint, that the NPT and the TPNW are legally compatible treaties and politically complementary, but the TPNW is the instrument that actually begins to deliver on the promise of disarmament the NPT made to the world.

One of the key nuclear treaties that grew out of the Cold War fear of nuclear weapons use was the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The stated aims of the NPT were to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to achieve nuclear disarmament.

The NPT is one of the most signed Treaties in the world. Nearly every nation has signed it. Only four countries stand outside of the NPT – India, Pakistan, Israel and the Republic of North Korea. Each of these nations have nuclear weapons also. But 58 years on, none of the five nuclear weapon states recognised under the NPT have eliminated their nuclear arsenals.

The Treaty recognises five nuclear weapon states - the US, Soviet Union/now Russia, the UK, France and China. All other states signing on to the NPT were expected to refrain from acquiring or developing nuclear weapons. In return, the deal was that they may have access to peaceful uses of nuclear technologies. Central to the agreement was that the nuclear armed states would commit to general and complete disarmament of their nuclear weapons.

More recently, the world has welcomed a new humanitarian disarmament treaty - the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Following decades of advocacy by affected communities and civil society groups, the TPNW reframed the global debate around nuclear weapons to be one around humanitarian imperative.

One of the most significant parts of the TPNW is the obligation placed on countries (Articles 6 and 7) to support victims of nuclear weapons use and testing, as well as taking responsibility for the environmental clean up required. It focuses on the environmental and human cost of all aspects of nuclear weapons, with the stories of communities affected by nuclear weapons testing forming a key role in the Treaty’s formation, with particular recognition of the disproportionate impact on Hibakusha (survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), Indigenous People, and women and girls.

The TPNW comprehensively outlaws nuclear weapons, while also creating positive obligations for States who sign and ratify to look after victims and assist in environmental remediation. It aims to stop countries from developing, producing or taking part in any stage of the nuclear weapons cycle.

The 2017 TPNW was negotiated with the purpose of strengthening the largely unimplemented disarmament pillar of the 1968 NPT. Yet, one of the main criticisms against the TPNW has been its alleged incompatibility with the NPT. TPNW States Parties are working steadily to refute these unfounded claims (see here for example), and across the world, governments, activists and affected community members are working to show the urgent need to fulfil the disarmament aims of both Treaties.

From the Nuclear Truth Project’s standpoint, the two treaties are legally compatible and politically complementary, but the TPNW is the instrument that actually begins to deliver on the promise of disarmament the NPT made to the world.

The Nuclear Truth Project’s Protocols, our archival work, and our advocacy at TPNW Meetings of States Parties all point in one consistent direction: the TPNW is the more justice-centred vehicle, and its relationship with the NPT should be understood as the fulfilment of the NPT's long-deferred disarmament obligations and not its rival.