DYB2011-Part-II-web

United Nations Disarmament Yearbook 2011: Part II
8
Over 160 countries committed themselves to promoting the Treaty’s
entry into force at the highest political level and joined the United Nations
Secretary-General in urging the nine countries whose ratifications were
required for the Treaty’s entry into force to act without further delay:
China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, 14
Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States. A number
of intergovernmental organizations, specialized agencies and related
organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations and the media were
also present at the Conference.
The Secretary-General convened the Conference in his capacity as the
depositary of the CTBT. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Patricia
Espinosa Cantellano, and the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, presided
over the Conference.
The Conference unanimously adopted the Final Declaration (see
appendix II) that called upon the remaining countries to sign and ratify the
Treaty without delay. The Final Declaration outlined 10 practical measures
for early entry into force and universalization of the Treaty, including various
capacity-building and outreach activities; support for bilateral, regional and
multilateral initiatives by interested States to promote the Treaty’s entry
into force and its universalization; and encouragement of cooperation with
intergovernmental organizations and civil society to raise awareness of the
Treaty.
Events in Japan in March
The monitoring data from the Preparatory Commission for the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
demonstrated their usefulness for disaster mitigation purposes in March
during the devastating earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami.
Over 40 CTBTO radionuclide stations detected radioactive emissions
related to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The
CTBTO Preparatory Commission provided 120 signatory States and 1,200
scientific and expert institutions with independent, reliable and real-time
data on the impact of the release. It also responded to requests to share its
monitoring data and analysis reports with international organizations involved
in disaster prevention and nuclear safety. In this connection, data and analysis
on the possible dispersion of radioactive substances in Japan and the wider
region was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health
documents related to the conferences are available from http://www.un.org/disarmament/
WMD/Nuclear/XIVConferencesCTBT.shtml. The Treaty text and status of adherence are
available from http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/ (accessed 7 May 2012).
14 The Indonesian parliament subsequently approved ratification on 6 December 2011. Once
Indonesia deposits its instrument of ratification, the number of States that must ratify the
CTBT before it can enter into force will be reduced to eight.