Belgium ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Belgium deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 29 June 1999. Belgium is the thirty-eighth State signatory to have ratified the Treaty and the nineteenth of the 44 countries listed in the Treaty whose ratification is necessary for its entry into force. The 37 other States that have ratified the Treaty are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Luxembourg, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan.

To date, 152 States have signed the Treaty. Under the CTBT, an international monitoring system of 321 stations, using four complementary technologies, is being established to record data necessary to verify compliance with the Treaty. The stations will be capable of registering vibrations from a nuclear explosion underground, in the seas and in the air, as well as detecting radioactive debris released into the atmosphere. The monitoring stations will transmit, via satellite, the data to the International Data Centre (IDC) within CTBTO PrepCom in Vienna, where the data will be used to detect, locate and characterize events. These data and other IDC products will be made available to the signatory States for final analysis. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion anywhere in the world. Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996 at the United Nations in New York. Belgium was one of the 71 States that signed the Treaty on that day.

For further information on the CTBTO, please see www.ctbto.org or contact: 
Annika Thunborg, Chief, Public Information   
T    +43 1 26030-6375  
E   press@ctbto.org
M    +43 699 1459 6375