CTBTO Preparatory
Commission concludes
Twenty-Seventh Session

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has concluded its Twenty-Seventh Session.  A total of 93 States Signatories participated in the session which was held from 13 to 17 November 2006 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine. Referring to the announcement of the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea on 9 October 2006 to have conducted a nuclear test, the Commission recalled that a large number of States had expressed their deep concern about the event at a Special Session of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission on 13 October 2006.  States Signatories expressed their views that the event underlined the need for the early completion of the verification regime, including the noble gas stations, for the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Executive Secretary Tibor Toth reported on achievements made in the build-up of the verification regime as well as on administrative and budgetary matters.  He informed delegates that 75% of the International Monitoring System (IMS) Stations were installed.  Mr. Toth also reported about the scientific symposium ?CTBT: Synergies with Science, 1996-2006 and Beyond? that took place on 31 August and 1 September 2006 in Vienna, Austria, to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the CTBT.  The symposium aimed at increasing the interaction between the CTBTO Preparatory Commission and the international scientific community in order to build global capacities in relevant fields of science and technology. The CTBTO Preparatory Commission endorsed a recommendation of its technical organ, Working Group B, for the Commission to contribute data to a tsunami warning system.  The Commission will provide real time and continuous data from primary seismic, auxiliary seismic and hydroacoustic IMS stations to relevant tsunami warning organizations.  Following a March 2005 decision, the Commission had explored the usefulness and feasibility of a possible provision of data for tsunami warning.  Organizations receiving data during this test phase had confirmed that the Commission?s data increased their ability to identify tsunami-generating earthquakes and to give more rapid warnings.  States Signatories welcomed the ratifications of the Treaty by Andorra, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ethiopia, and the succession to the Treaty by Montenegro.  They expressed broad support for the convening of the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 2007.  The Commission agreed that the budget of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission for 2007 will be $48,277,100 and ?48,564,400.  The CTBTO Preparatory Commission elected Ambassador Ana Teresa Dengo, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica, as its new chairperson for 2007.  Vice-Chairpersons for the same period will be the representatives of Algeria (Africa), Slovakia (Eastern Europe), Peru (Latin America and the Caribbean), Canada (North America and Western Europe) and New Zealand (South-East Asia, the Pacific and the Far East). The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions.  Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.  To date, the Treaty has been signed by 177 States and ratified by 137.  It will enter into force when it has been ratified by all 44 States listed in Annex 2 of the Treaty.  Thirty-four of these States have so far deposited their instruments of ratifications.

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