This archive report was first published on 5 August 2020.
Seventy-five years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a tragedy that taught humanity the devastating consequences of nuclear war.
On this somber anniversary, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasizes the need to eliminate all nuclear arms, citing the lingering suffering of the hibakusha, the survivors of the bombings.
Despite the existence of a web of agreements and instruments aimed at preventing the use of nuclear weapons, the threat is growing once more, fueled by international tensions and the dissolution of trust between countries.
As governments rely heavily on nuclear weapons for security, politicians engage in heated rhetoric about their possible use and devote vast sums of money to improving their lethality, money that would be better spent on peaceful, sustainable development.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has proven its worth, but some states have yet to sign or ratify it, preventing it from fulfilling its full potential as an essential element in the framework to eliminate nuclear weapons.
Along with climate change, nuclear weapons represent an existential threat to our societies, with most of the roughly 13,000 nuclear arms currently in global arsenals being vastly more destructive than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It is time to return to the shared understanding that a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought, to the collective agreement that we should work towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and to the spirit of cooperation that enabled historic progress towards their elimination.
The United States and the Russian Federation, as the possessors of some 90 per cent of nuclear weapons, are expected to lead the way, with the extension of the 'New START' treaty for five years providing a crucial opportunity to negotiate new agreements.
Next year, the United Nations will host the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), one of the most successful international security agreements, which contains the only treaty-based commitments undertaken by the five largest nuclear-armed countries to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons.
