On December 23, 2021, Peru become the 59th state party to ratify the United Nation’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In a press statement, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry stated that Peru’s ratification of the TPNW highlights its “high commitment to its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law”, adding that it “is in line with Peru’s commitment to promoting international peace and security to facilitate the development and growth of our peoples”.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has congratulated the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, as well as Peruvian and Latin-American activists, particularly those associated with the Human Security Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEHLAC), who campaigned for this outcome.
Peru participated in the negotiation of the TPNW at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and was among 122 states that voted in favour of its adoption.
Antonio García Revilla, the Director-General of Multilateral and Global Affairs in Peru’s Foreign Ministry, signed the TPNW when it opened for signature on September 20, 2017. Following a sympathetic review by its Foreign Affairs Committee, the congress of Peru unanimously approved a law to ratify the TPNW on December 9, 2021. Subsequently the Peruvian government deposited its instrument of ratification with the UN Secretary-General on December 23, 2021.
Peru is now the 14th country in Latin America to ratify the TPNW, following Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Uruguay, El Salvador, Panama, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Honduras, and Chile. In addition, the following four countries in the region have signed, but not yet ratified, the Treaty: Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala.
The first meeting of States Parties to the TPNW was scheduled to be convened by the UN Secretary-General within one year of the Treaty’s entry into force on January 22, 2021. States Parties subsequently rescheduled the meeting to March 22 -24, 2022 at the UN Office at Vienna due to overlapping dates with major disarmament meetings that have had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regardless of who possesses nuclear weapons, these WMD pose a serious threat to human survival. The Morrison government must listen to the community and sign up to the TPNW since the prohibition of nuclear weapons is the only rational option we have to safeguard our security.1 Rather than turning its back on the TPNW as it has done in the past, the Morrison government should commit to sending a delegation to observe the first meeting of States Parties in Vienna in March 2022 as an initial step towards ratifying the Treaty.
In the lead up the next Federal election in 2022, the Labor Party should also support the sending of an official delegation to observe the first meeting of States Parties in Vienna, as well as unambiguously recommitting to signing and then ratifying the TPNW if it wins office.2
Notes
1. A July 2020 Ipsos opinion poll found that 71% of Australians are in favour of joining the TPNW, with only 9% opposed.
2. A normal (House of Representatives and half-Senate) Federal election must take place no later than May 21, 2022. For more information on the Coalition’s and Labor Party’s differing views on the TPNW, refer to Gem Romuld, ‘Don’t Mention the Ban: Australia’s Evasion of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’, Toda Peace Instutute, December 14, 2020.