Nigeria, Nieu and St Kitts & Nevis have all completed ratification to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the past days, taking the number of ratifications to 44. The Treaty will enter into force once 50 states have joined.
Nigeria becomes the sixth African state to sign, while Nieu (Pacific) and St Kitts & Nevis (Carribean) are the seventh states in their regions to join. Nigeria and Nieu confirmed their ratification on Thursday 6 August, the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the same day as Ireland joined the Treaty. St Kitts & Nevis did so on Sunday 9 August, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.
“The bombing of Nagasaki was the apogee of human cruelty and inhumanity. As a small nation committed to global peace, St Kitts Nevis can see no useful purpose for nuclear armaments in today’s world.”
Mark Brantley, Foreign Affairs Minister, St Kitts & Nevis
The Treaty was agreed by the United Nations in July 2017 after negotiations last several months. 122 states voted in favour of the Treaty at the final stage and since then many votes at the United Nations have confirmed the position of the international community in opposing nuclear weapons. The Treaty will ban nuclear weapons on the ground of their humanitarian consequences, in the same way that chemical and biological weapons have previously been banned.
Please join us as we thank God for the decisions of Nigeria, Nieu and St Kitts & Nevis to sign the Treaty as well as all those who have been working in those states to bring the move about. We also pray that more states will ratify the Treaty soon so that it may enter into force and that the nuclear-armed states will engage with the Treaty in the coming months.
