Switzerland ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Switzerland deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 1 October 1999. Switzerland is the forty-eighth State signatory to have ratified the Treaty and the twenty-forth of the 44 States listed in the Treaty to do so.

Under Article XIV, to enter into force, the CTBT has to be ratified by 44 nuclear-capable States that formally participated in the work of the 1996 Conference on Disarmament and that possess nuclear power and research reactors as listed in the Treaty. Switzerland is hosting one auxiliary seismic station as part of the international network of monitoring facilities that the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) is establishing or upgrading to verify compliance with the CTBT. The three-component station is an existing station located in Davos. CTBTO PrepCom will be involved in upgrading the station´s instruments, providing cost-free, cutting-edge parts that meet Treaty specifications, but the station will be owned and operated by Switzerland.

Under the CTBT, an international monitoring system (IMS) 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 47 other States that have ratified the Treaty are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Mali, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uzbekistan. To date, 154 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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