Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which opened for signature in 1996, is intended to prohibit all nuclear weapon test explosions. The CTBT has achieved near universal adherence, however, Article XIV of the Treaty requires ratification by 44 named states, before the Treaty can enter into force.

Of these 44 states, three - India, Pakistan, and North Korea - have not signed the Treaty. A further six states - China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, and the United States - have signed but not ratified the Treaty.

Unfinished Business: the Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, by Dr Rebecca Johnson

Published by UNIDIR, Unfinished Business: the Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, by Rebecca Johnson details how the CTBT was fought for, opposed and finally negotiated. It considers how a decade of political and institutional obstacles have prevented the CTBT from entering into full legal effect, including the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of May 1998, the US failure to ratify the treaty in 1999, and the October 9, 2006 nuclear test by North Korea.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty remains a key piece of unfinished business of the nuclear age. As a growing number of governments and decisionmakers put forward ideas to move the world toward abolishing nuclear weapons, much can be learned from how the CTBT was fought for, opposed and finally negotiated between 1994 and 1996. The treaty's necessity was underlined when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted a nuclear test explosion in 2006, but more than a decade of political and institutional obstacles have prevented the CTBT from entering into full legal effect.

CTBT Article XIV Conference, September 2009

The next Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Article XIV Conference will be held from 24 - 25 September 2009 in New York. Rebecca Johnson, Executive Director of the Acronym Institute will attend. For latest analysis and reporting from Disarmament Diplomacy, see below.

Latest Additions

Nuclear Testing and Proliferation - an Inextricable Connection, by Thomas Graham, Jr. and David Hafemeister, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
Unfinished Business: Lessons from the CTBT Negotiations, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
Second North Korean Nuclear Test underscores urgency of CTBT and Disarmament, Disarmament News Review, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
CTBTO prepares for Zero-growth Budget, Disarmament News Review, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009

Background Information and Documents

North Korea Nuclear test, 25 May 2009
President Obama speech on Nuclear Disarmament, 5 April 2009
Hillary Clinton Nomination Hearings To Be Secretary of State, 13 January 2009
US Chair Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry oped on New Directions for Foreign Relations, 13 January 2009
Despatch 2 from the CTBT Integrated Field Exercise in Arcania, Rebecca Johnson, 10 September 2008
Despatch from the CTBT On-site Inspection in Arcania, 6 September 2008
CTBT Entry into Force Conference Agrees on practical Measures and Calls for Hold-outs to Sign and Ratify, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 85, Summer 2007.
Joint Ministerial Statement on CTBT Presented in New York at the United Nations by Fifty-Nine Foreign Ministers, Co-Chairs Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, September 20, 2006.
Statement by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, September 20, 2006.
'[O]ur best hope of stemming nuclear proliferation', IAEA Director General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, September 1, 2006

Key Documents

For the CTBT text and latest on signatories and ratifications go to the CTBT Organisation website at: www.ctbto.org.

CTBT On-site Inspection Exercise, September 2008

Rebecca Johnson observes the CTBT On-site inspection exercise in Kazakhstan.

Testing the test-ban treaty: Week two of the CTBTO inspection exercise in Kazakhstan, Rebecca Johnson, 19 September 2008
Testing the test-ban treaty: An inspection exercise in Kazakhstan, Rebecca Johnson, 15 September 2008, published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

See also: Acronym's CTBT archive, including Rebecca Johnson's reports on the treaty negotiations.

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