Morocco ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Morocco deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 17 April 2000. Morocco is the fifty-sixth State signatory to have ratified the Treaty. Under Article XIV of the CTBT, to enter into force, the Treaty has to be ratified by the 44 nuclear-capable States named under Article XIV that formally participated in the work of the 1996 Conference on Disarmament and that possess nuclear power and research reactors.

Morocco is contributing one auxiliary seismological station to the international network of monitoring stations that the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) is establishing or upgrading to verify compliance with the Treaty. The station at Midelt was built by the National Geophysical Institute of Italy as part of an earthquake monitoring network in the Mediterranean and will need substantial upgrading to meet the stringent specifications of the network.

Under the CTBT, the network of 321 monitoring stations - known as the International Monitoring System (IMS) - will record data necessary to verify compliance with the Treaty using four complementary technologies. The stations will be capable of registering vibrations from a possible 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 56 States that have ratified the Treaty are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan. (To date, 155 States have signed the Treaty). 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.

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Annika Thunborg
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