COLONMUN 2008

Disarmament and International Security

TOPIC B: THE EXPANSION AND REFORMATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPON FREE ZONES

Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (NWFZs) at a minimum prohibit the stationing, testing, use, and
development of nuclear weapons inside a particular geographical region, whether that is a single
state, a region, or area governed solely by international agreements. They have been identified
in many fora, including the Non-Proliferatio n Treaty and the UN General Assembly, as being
positive steps towards nuclear disarmament.

Single State Zones are created by national legislation, declaration or constitutional mandate.
Some countries, such as Mongolia and Austria, have declared their nuclear weapon free status
in the absence of any regional treaty while others, such as New Zealand and the Philippines,
have used domestic means to go beyond the obligations of the regional treaty to which they are
a party.

Mongolia and Austria have both declared their nuclear weapon free status through enacting
domestic legislation, Austria in 1999 and Mongolia in 2000. Both acts prohibit the manufacturing,
storage, transport, and testing of nuclear weapons within their territory. Mongolia's legislation
also prohibits the transportation, dumping and storage of weapons grade nuclear waste within its
territory, and obligates the National Security Council of Mongolia to co-ordinate the international
institutionalising of its NWF status. Single nation zones lack formal agreements from NWS
respecting their NWF status, however Mongolia is seeking to achieve such international
recognition as well as some negative security assurances from NWS.

New Zealand's Nuclear Free Zone domestic legislation, prohibits any foreign ship that is nuclear
powered or carrying nuclear weapons from entering its internal waters or any foreign aircraft
landing in its territory. This goes beyond New Zealand's obligations under the South Pacific
Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, which permits port visits of nuclear ships. The Philippines, a member
of the South East Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, has declared its territory free of nuclear
weapons through a change in its constitution.

Existing NWFZs are currently facing many challenges. For single state zones, pressing issues
involve gaining negative security assurances from NWS as well as international respect and
recognition. Regional zones are left with the challenge of obtaining full ratification of their treaties
and protocols, along with continued verification of compliance. The question of transit of nuclear
weapons remains uncertain for most NWFZs. To what extent will NWFZs be able to prevent the
presence of nuclear weapons in the seas before coming into conflict with the Law of the Sea?

The international community has focused on the possibility of creating new regional NWFZs
particularly in the Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia, North East Asia, and Central Europe.
There is also room for existing NWFZs to work more closely together. There have, for example
been moves to affirm a Nuclear Weapon Free Southern Hemisphere and Adjacent Areas, which

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could involve a declaration or agreement between existing regional zones. Support for such a
move has come from United Nations General Assembly resolutions and from informal
discussions between the zones.

Antarctic Treaty System

The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force
on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the
International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58 and willing to accept a US invitation to the
conference at which the treaty was negotiated. These countries were Argentina, Australia,
Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, India, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the United
Kingdom and the United States. Between them, the signatories had established over 50
Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and
scientific cooperation that had been achieved on the ice.

Articles of the Antarctic Treaty

Article 1 - area to be used for peaceful purposes only; military activity, such as weapons testing,
is prohibited, but military personnel and equipment may be used for scientific research or any
other peaceful purpose;
Article 2 - freedom of scientific investigation and cooperation shall continue;
Article 3 - free exchange of information and personnel in cooperation with the United Nations
and other international agencies;
Article 4 - does not recognize, dispute, or establish territorial sovereignty claims and no new
claims shall be asserted while the treaty is in force;
Article 5 - prohibits nuclear explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes;
Article 6 - includes under the treaty all land and ice shelves south of 60 degrees 00 minutes
south;
Article 7 - treaty-state observers have free access, including aerial observation, to any area and
may inspect all stations, installations, and equipment; advance notice of all activities and of the
introduction of military personnel must be given;
Article 8 - allows for jurisdiction over observers and scientists by their own states;
Article 9 - frequent consultative meetings take place among member nations;
Article 10 - treaty states will discourage activities by any country in Antarctica that are contrary to
the treaty;
Article 11 - disputes to be settled peacefully by the parties concerned or, ultimately, by the
International Court of Justice;
Articles 12, 13, 14 - deal with upholding, interpreting, and amending the treaty among involved
nations.
The main objective of the ATS is to ensure in the interests of all mankind that Antarctica shall
continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or
object of international discord. The treaty forbids any measures of a military nature, but not the

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presence of military personnel per se. It avoided addressing the question of existing territorial
claims asserted by some nations and not recognized by others. According to article 25, the
treaty may be modified or amended in any way after having been in force for fifty years. (In
2011) Such changes will have to get a 3/4 majority vote.

Treaty of Tlatelolco

The Treaty of Tlatelolco is the conventional name given to the Treaty for the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Meeting in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City on 14 February 1967, the nations of Latin
America and the Caribbean drafted this treaty to keep their region of the world free of nuclear
weapons. Whereas Antarctica had earlier been declared a nuclear-weapon-free zone under the
1961 Antarctic Treaty, this was the first time such a ban was put in place over such a vast,
populated area.

The treaty came into force on 25 April 1969, and has since been signed and ratified by all 33
nations of Latin America and the Caribbean. (Cuba was the last country to ratify, on 23 October
2002.)

Under the treaty, the states' parties agree to prohibit and prevent the "testing, use, manufacture,
production or acquisition by any means whatsoever of any nuclear weapons" and the "receipt,
storage, installation, deployment and any form of possession of any nuclear weapons."

There are two additional protocols to the treaty: Protocol I binds those overseas countries with
territories in the region (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands) to
the terms of the treaty. Protocol II requires the world's declared nuclear weapons states to
refrain from undermining in any way the nuclear-free status of the region; it has been signed and
ratified by the USA, the UK, France, China, and Russia.

The treaty also provides for a comprehensive control and verification mechanism, overseen by
the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean
(OPANAL), based in Mexico City.

Alfonso García Robles and Alva Myrdal received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for their efforts
in promoting the treaty.

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Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty

The Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) of 1995, or Bangkok

Treaty, is a nuclear weapons moritorium treaty between 10 Asian member-states under the
auspices of the ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It entered into force on March 28, 1997 and
obliges its members not to develop, manufacture or otherwise acquire, possess or have control
over nuclear weapons.

African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty

The Treaty prohibits the research, development, manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition, testing,
possession, control or stationing of nuclear explosive devices in the territory of parties to the
Treaty and the dumping of radioactive wastes in the African zone by Treaty parties. The Treaty
also prohibits any attack against nuclear installations in the zone by Treaty parties and requires
them to maintain the highest standards of physical protection of nuclear material, facilities and
equipment, which are to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes. The Treaty requires all
parties to apply full-scope International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards to all their peaceful
nuclear activities. A mechanism to verify compliance, including the establishment of the African
Commission on Nuclear Energy, has been established by the Treaty. Its office will be in South
Africa.[3] The Treaty affirms the right of each party to decide for itself whether to allow visits by
foreign ships and aircraft to its ports and airfields, explicitly upholds the freedom of navigation on
the high seas and does not effect rights to passage through territorial waters guaranteed by
international law.

The Treaty has three Protocols.

Under Protocol I, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the People's
Republic of China are invited to agree not to use or threaten to use a nuclear explosive device
against any Treaty party or against any territory of a Protocol III party within the African zone.
Under Protocol II, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and
China are invited to agree not to test or assist or encourage the testing of a nuclear explosive
device anywhere with the African zone.
Protocol III is open to states with dependent territories in the zone and obligates them to observe
certain provisions of the Treaty with respect to these territories; only Spain and France may
become Parties to it.

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The Treaty of Rarotonga

Is the common name for the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, which formalizes a
nuclear-weapon-free zone in the South Pacific. The treaty bans the use, testing, and possession
of nuclear weapons within the borders of the zone.

It was signed by the South Pacific nations of Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru,
New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and
Western Samoa on the island of Rarotonga (where the capital of the Cook Islands is located) on
August 6, 1985, and has since been ratified by all of those states.

The Federal States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau are not eligible, since they are
part of the so-called Compact of Free Association which provides access to nuclear submarines
of the United States of America.

There are three protocols to the treaty: the first governs territories held by nuclear armed states
in the zone, the others govern nuclear states in general. In 1996, France, United Kingdom
signed and ratified the three protocols of the treaty. The USA signed them the same year but
never ratified them. China signed and ratified the protocols two and three in 1987.

Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone

The Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone treaty is a legally binding commitment by
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan not to manufacture, acquire,
test, or possess nuclear weapons. The treaty was signed on 8 September 2006 at Semipalatinsk
Test Site, Kazakhstan.

Mongolian Nuclear-Weapons-Free Status

In 1992 the President of Mongolia, Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat, announced that his country would
seek to become a one-state Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, or NWFZ. The last Russian troops had
left the country that same year, and Mongolia perceived a change in its geopolitical status and
sensed an opportunity for neutrality.

The initiative was well received by Mongolia's nuclear armed neighbors, Russia and China, as
well as the world community at large, despite being somewhat unorthodox. Previously, NWFZ's
had been composed of a group of countries, although the possibility of single state zones had
been long recognized: Resolution 3261 F of the UN General Assembly, on December 9, 1974
explicitly states

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"obligations relating to the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones may be assumed not

only by groups of states, including entire continents or large geographical regions, but also by
small groups of States and even individual countries."

Mongolia's drive for international recognition yielded fruit in Resolution 53/77 D [1] , which was
adopted by the General Assembly on December 4, 1998, which welcomed Mongolia's goal, and
put it on the agenda for the next meeting.

Finally, on February 28, 2000, the Mongolian Ambassador to the UN Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan
presented a letter outlining the Mongolian denuclearization law, which was then circulated as
A/55/56 S/2000/160. At this stage, it appears that the international recognition of Mongolia's
nuclear-weapons-free status is complete.

The Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany

Was negotiated in 1990 between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the German
Democratic Republic (GDR), and the Four Powers which occupied Germany at the end of World
War II in Europe: France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union.

On 2 August 1945 the Potsdam Agreement was issued at the end of the Potsdam Conference.
Among other things, it agreed the initial terms under which the Allies of World War II would
govern Germany and the provisional German Polish border known as the Oder-Neisse line. The
agreements reached were provisional ones that would be finalised by "a peace settlement for
Germany to be accepted by the Government of Germany when a government adequate for the
purpose is established" (Potsdam Agreement 1.3.1). The "German Question" became one of the
defining issues of the Cold War and until it ended in the late 1980s little progress had been
made in establishing a single government of Germany adequate for the purpose of agreeing to a
final settlement.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall the German people and the German governments of the of FRG
(the government of West Germany) and the GDR (the government of East Germany) made it
clear that they wished to form a unitary democratic German state, and that to achieve unity and
full sovereignty they were willing to accept the terms of the Potsdam Agreement that affected
Germany. It was then possible for all the parties to negotiate a final settlement as envisaged in
the Potsdam Agreement. The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was
signed in Moscow on September 12, 1990 and paved the way for German reunification on
October 3 that year.

Under the terms of the treaty, the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in
Germany, including Berlin. As a result, the reunited country became fully sovereign on March 15,
1991. Soviet troops were to leave Germany by the end of 1994. Germany agreed to limit its
combined armed forces to no more than 370,000 personnel, no more than 345,000 of whom
were to be in the army and air force. Germany also reaffirmed its renunciation of the

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manufacture and possession of and control over nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and
in particular that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would continue to apply to united
Germany. Also, no foreign armed forces and nuclear weapons or their carriers would be
stationed in former East Germany or deployed there, making it a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.

Another of the treaty's important terms was Germany's confirmation of the internationally
recognized border with Poland and territorial changes Germany had undergone since 1945,
preventing any future claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line (see also former German
territories east of the Oder-Neisse line). Germany also agreed to sign a separate treaty with
Poland reaffirming their present border, which was done on November 14, 1990 with the signing
of the German-Polish Border Treaty.

Although the treaty was signed by the two German states as separate entities, it was ratified by
a united Germany per the terms of the agreement.

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