THE TIMELINE FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION (NWC)

A multilateral treaty that has been proposed to ban Nuclear Weapons is what the Nuclear Weapons Convention is all about. This is somewhat similar to the conventions on Biological and Chemical weapons. 

According to Arms Control Association Pakistan is a signatory to Biological and Chemical Weapons Convention but has not signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty as yet.

FAILED ATTEMPTS

The cold war left all parties across the globe to end the creation and proliferation of Nuclear weapons. A few proposals were put forward at that time which did not lead to any favorable results. 

These include but are not limited to the following,

• Baruch Plan (1946)
• the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Reykjavik (1986)
• Rajiv Gandhi’s action plan presented to the UN General Assembly (1988)

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

Over the years, the following developments took place.

• During the 1950s, UK and the US continued conducting nucleur tests.
• In July 1955, Russell–Einstein manifesto was issued which warned of the hazards of using nuclear weapons.
• During the 1960s, France and China conducted Nuclear tests.
• On 1st July 1968, 1st Non Proliferation treaty was signed that lead to nuclear disarmament and a ban on future acquisition of nuclear weapons of the parties involved.
• During the 1970's India conducted a nuclear test and a Nuclear explosion in the South Indian Ocean possibly by South Aftrica took place.
• During the 1990s, South Africa, South East Asia, Africa and Ukraine turned into Nuclear free states.
• At the end of Cold War, UN General Assembly posed the following question and asked the International Court of Justice its opinion on the matter by adopting a resolution 49/46K on 15th December, 1994.

 Is there any circumstance in which the International law permits the threat of or the usage of Nuclear weapons?

The International court of Justice (IJC) responded on 8th July 1996 by announcing the following statement,

 “there exists a legal obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its respects.” 

• On 24th September, 1996 China, UK, France, United Nations, United States and Russia signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which India refused to put its signatures on.
• In the year 1997, a draft was made by a group of experts and was presented to the UN General Assembly by Costa Rica for discussion. It was updated and used in 2007 as the Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) and was based on different chemical and biological conventions.
• In the year 1998, India and Pakistan conducted Nuclear Tests.
• In 2006, 123 state parties including Pakistan and India asked for starting up negotiations in Nuclear Weapons Convention regarding banning the acquisition, manufacture, testing, stockpiling, transferring and usage, threat and proliferation of Nuclear weapons.
• In 2007, ICAN (International Campaign to abolish Nuclear Weapons) created an improved model of Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC).
• in 2008, UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon presented a five point plan regarding disarmament of nuclear weapons by countries.
• In 2009, the first set of recommendations for Nuclear disarmament in a Nuclear convention were presented in draft form. It went unsuccessful.
• In May, 2009 a program of work, entitled “Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament” was approved and thus adopted by the CD (Conference on Disarmament). 
• In September 2009, The United Nations adopted the Resolution 1887 which was proposed by the United States. Two more resolutions were adopted by the UN in the same year regarding Nuclear Disarmament.
• In 2010, member states of Nuclear Proliferation Treaty adopted the Final Document proposed by the NPT Review Conference.
• In 2013, "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" was Introduced which called for elimination of Nuclear arms in all countries by 2020.
• In 2014, 164 member Inter Parliamentary union approved a resolution that urged countries to start negotiation regarding Nuclear disarmament as soon as possible.
• In 2016, different sessions of open-ended working group (OEWG) were held whereby proposals and negotiations on nuclear bans were carried out. Challenges regarding the imposition of the ban have been discussed as well.

The Nuclear Weapons Convention is still a matter of discussion at the United Nations and at the Conference of Disarmament (CD). More and more conferences are being conducted on the matter.