UN calls for a “world without nuclear weapons”

Friday, 25 September 2009 10:07 AM Fidelis Angela Tan

In what was only the fifth United Nations (UN) Security Council summit since the organization's founding in 1946, and the first incident of a US President chairing the session, Barack Obama garnered the unanimous support of the council for a draft resolution calling for a world free of nuclear weapons.

“The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to a goal of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama said. “And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal.”

The resolution harks back to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, which stated that existing nuclear powers must work towards disarmament while nations without nuclear weapons are to refrain from developing them. It also specified that the nuclear powers share their technology for peaceful uses.

Critics of the resolution point out that it does not provide for the mandatory disarmament of the five current nuclear powers – the United States, China, France, Britain and Russia. It also made no mention of other countries known to have nuclear arms or are in the process of developing the technology that might lead to such weapons. These include Iran and North Korea, currently seen by many in the UN as potential nuclear threats. Israel, Pakistan and India are also known to have atomic weapons.

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