NGO to launch initiative for Swiss adoption of nuclear weapons treaty
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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is launching a people’s initiative to get Switzerland to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
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ICAN plans to work on the exact content of the initiative by the end of the year in order to begin the preliminary examination by the Federal Chancellery at the beginning of 2024. According to the Geneva-based alliance, it is convinced that Switzerland can and should make an important contribution to the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
Switzerland is already a member of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This treaty includes a ban on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a commitment to disarmament and the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Last year, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force alongside the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Switzerland is not a signatory of this treaty. The official and de facto nuclear powers as well as the NATO states, with the exception of the Netherlands, did not take part in the negotiations and did not sign the treaty.
As an observer state, the question arises as to whether this new treaty can find its place in the architecture built around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, said Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis in New York in August.
The Federal Council argues that it could be counterproductive if the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as a universally recognised instrument for nuclear disarmament, were to be burdened by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
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