Mozambique Ratifies Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty

Mozambique ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, bringing to total number of ratifications to 146

Vienna, Austria, 6 November 2008

On 4 November 2008, Mozambique ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions on Earth. This brings the total number of Treaty ratifications to 146. Mozambique signed the CTBT on the day it opened for signature, on 26 September 1996.

Tibor Toth, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), welcomed Mozambique’s ratification.

Mozambique’s government indicated already at the last Article XIV conference to facilitate the entry into force of the CTBT in September 2007 that it would submit a package of international legal instruments, including the CTBT and the Treaty of Pelindaba, to the Parliament for consideration and adoption. On 26 March 2008, Mozambique ratified the Treaty of Pelindaba which creates a nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaty in Africa and prohibits the testing, development and stationing of nuclear weapons in a member’s territory.

The adherence to the CTBT is almost universal. 180 countries have already signed the Treaty. To enter into force, however, the Treaty must be signed and ratified by the 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty. These States participated in the negotiations of the Treaty in 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. Thirty-five of these States have ratified the Treaty, including the three nuclear weapon States France, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The nine remaining States are China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

A verification regime is being built to monitor compliance with the CTBT. 337 facilities world-wide will monitor the underground, the oceans and the atmosphere for any sign of a nuclear explosion. Today, over 230 facilities have been certified and incorporated into the network, and can send data to the International Data Center at the CTBTO in Vienna.

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