Ban Treaty makes progress, even swimming upstream April 24, 2023

Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor: Tracking Progress Towards a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

PSR is proud to be one of 650 Partner Organizations in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its successful efforts to pass the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). On March 29, Norwegian People’s Aid (another ICAN partner) released Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor 2022, which tracks progress toward implementing the ban.

On the plus side, the Monitor reported that with 68 ratifications and another 27 signatories, the TPNW is just 4 signatories shy of 50% of the nations of the world. On the minus side, the Monitor also reported that the global arsenal of nuclear weapons “available for use” by the nine nuclear-armed states has increased from 9,440 warheads in 2021 to 9,576 in January, 2023 as a result of Russia, China, India, North Korea and Pakistan all increasing the size of their arsenals. If only 3% of the world’s arsenals were used to attack cities, it could trigger nuclear famine.

Download the full report from Norwegian People’s Aid