A Sorry Tale, which CTBT is.

The brutal nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 assaulted the conscience of humanity. An incredibly large number of people lost their lives. Self-esteem of the great Japanese nation was mortally wounded. A surge of colossal moral outrage overtook the world. The nightmare did not end there. Big powers cheerfully went on adding to their nuclear arsenal without any restraint.

In 1954, the Prime Minster of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, voiced the concern of international community on the proliferation of the nuclear weapons. He said that "fear would grow and grip nations and peoples and each would try frantically to get this new weapon or some adequate protection from it." Nehru maintained that "a dominating factor in the modern world is this prospect of these terrible weapons suddenly coming into use before which our normal weapons are completely useless."

Nehru proposed a ban on the nuclear test explosions as a first step towards total nuclear disarmament. It took the world more than four decades to understand the meaning his words. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) did not become ready for signatures before Sept 24, 1996. That was exactly 12 years ago from today.

Story of CTBT is a intriguing story. It is a story without a happy ending. Nor there exists a tragic end to it. It is like a story told to a small girl who fell into sleep while her grandmother was telling it.

Let me begin the story.

Geneva is a beautiful Swiss city by the side of Lake Geneva. In a manner of speaking, it has been the capital of world conscience. Earlier, it had been the headquarters of the League of Nations. Presently, a large number of international organizations have their offices in Geneva, including many agencies of the United Nations. One such offshoot of the UN is the Conference on Disarmament (CD). It was set up in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community.

An ad hoc committee of the CD began considering a draft in January 1994 for a treaty with an avowed aim of prohibiting and preventing nuclear test explosions. The operative provisions of the treaty were contained in the Article I of the treaty which runs as follows.

Article I
1. Each State Party undertakes not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control. "

"2. Each State Party undertakes, furthermore, to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the carrying out of any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion."

All the parties agreed to these core provisions but the discussions dragged for a long time on the other provisions of the treaty.

However, India did not support in the treaty because (i) the provisions about entry-in-force of the treaty were unprecedented in a multi-national treaty and were against the customary International Law, and (ii) the treaty did not contain a commitment by the nuclear-capable states to eliminate nuclear weapons within a time-bound frame.

In spite of the Indian misgivings, a final draft of the treaty was put up to CD in June 1996. A majority of Member States of the CD supported the draft. The draft was then submitted by the CD to the General Assembly of the United Nations. On Sept 10, 1996, the General Assembly approved the draft and requested the Secretary-General to open it for signatures at the earliest possible date. The treaty was opened for signature on September 24, 1996.

The treaty was signed by 71 countries including the five nuclear-capable states. India, Pakistan and Israel kept themselves away from it. That was the position in 1996.

Treaty has not come into force till today. What are the reasons of its lying in a coma for 12 long years. The answer lies in the death wish of the treaty planted like a Trojan horse in its article XIV.

ARTICLE XIV
ENTRY INTO FORCE
"1. This Treaty shall enter into force 180 days after the date of deposit of the instruments of ratification by all States listed in Annex 2 to this Treaty, but in no case earlier than two years after its opening for signature."

Now, the Annex 2 cited above contains a set of 44 States, including all the five recognised nuclear-capable States, India, Pakistan and Israel. Present status is that the CTBT has been signed by 178 countries and ratified by 144.

Question of India and Pakistan ratifying the treaty does not arise because they are not signatories to the treaty. Israel, a late signatory, has also withheld the ratification. Other States who have not ratified the treaty are the USA, China, Egypt, North Korea, and Indonesia. The pride of place goes to the USA, who not only had withheld the ratification, but also had it unambiguously decided not to ratify the CTBT by a resolution of its Senate on October 13, 1999.

Situation would have been laughable, if the matter was not serious. By implication of the Article XIV of the treaty, any single country mentioned in the Annex 2 of the treaty can veto the entry into force of the treaty. India was justified in pointing out that this procedure was perverse and an absurdity in the eye of customary International Law.

So, the CTBT's is a story which does not have a visible end in the foreseeable future. To call it a Treaty is a misnomer. At best we can say, with apologies to the Bard, that "....it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."