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International Treaties
| Each
of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in
good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear
arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a
treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective
international control.
Article
VI of the NPT |
... all
Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the
United States,
shall be the supreme Law of the Land;
and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby....
Article
VI of the US Constitution |
What
is the NPT? Facts and Background
The nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty became international law in 1970. For a while now, there have been
five nuclear nuclear weapon states: USA, UK, USSR, France and China. Since
then , India, Israel and Pakistan have developed nuclear weapons, and
they remain the only countries outside the treaty. The NPT contains the
only binding commitment to nuclear disarmament in a multilateral treaty
on the part of the Nuclear Weapon States in Article 6.
The 188 governments
that have ratified this treaty, meet every five years at Review Conference
to assess the implementation of the treaty. Originally intended as a temporary
treaty, the NPT stipulates that 25 years after entry into force, a conference
shall be convened to decide whether or not the Treaty shall continue indefinitely,
or be extended for an additional fixed period or periods. In 1995 this
conference was convened, and a package of decisions extend the Treaty
indefinitely.
Five years later, at the 2000 Review Conference all 187 governments -
including the Nuclear Five - agreed to a 13 Point Action Plan for the
systematic and progressive disarmament of the world's nuclear weapons.
More on the NPT
Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty
Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty
Coverage |
