Nuclear-Test ban

The discontinuance of nuclear-weapon tests was a separate issue by the General Assembly in 19S7 and in the more than 30 years since then United Nations efforts towards that goal have been unending. Over these years, the Assembly typically adopted competing resolutions on the question, some referring to nuclear-weapon tests and others to nuclear-test explosions. In the light of increasing environmental and regional concerns, and with the establishment in the 1980s of a mechanism for the reporting to the United Nations of all acknowledged or detected nuclear explosive testing, both the issue and the goal are now widely accepted as encompassing all nuclear-test explosions. As seen from the perspective of the vast majority of States, two factors—the failure of all the nuclear Powers to agree unequivocally on that as an immediate goal, and the remarkable evolution in international relations and disarmament affairs in recent years, particularly the end of the cold war—have lent increased urgency to the question. The most contentious issues now are how best to achieve a complete test ban and with what priority in the context of nuclear disarmament

Related Subject(s): Disarmament