State of Palestine
Palestine brought into force a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA on 7 September 2022, in accordance with its obligation under Article 3(2) of the TPNW, a few weeks after the 18-month deadline. Addressing the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW (1MSP) in Vienna in June 2022, Palestine hailed the TPNW’s entry into force and the convening of the meeting as a ‘victory’ for multilateralism, the UN Charter and international law.[1]
TPNW Status
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compliance in 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compliant |
| Test | Compliant | |
| Possess or stockpile | Compliant | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compliant |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compliant |
| (d) | Use | Compliant |
| Threaten to use | Compliant | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compliant |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compliant |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compliant |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | N/A |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | Yes |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | 4 (25%) |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | N/A |
| Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
|---|---|
| Party to an NWFZ | No |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Acceded 2015) |
| Ratified the CTBT | No |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Acceded 2018) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Acceded 2018) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | 22 Jul 2022 (Met 7 Sep 2022) |
| Small Quantities Protocol | Yes (Modified) |
| Additional Protocol | No |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
At the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in August 2022, Palestine said that the TPNW was ‘long overdue, as there can be no rational justification for the privileged status granted, de facto, to nuclear weapons over other weapons of mass destruction’. It said that their use and threat of use ‘have always been illegal’.2 In a closing statement to the NPT Review Conference, Palestine and 64 other TPNW supporters urged ‘all states committed to attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons to join the TPNW without delay’.3
Marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2022, Palestine noted that ‘it has taken seven decades’ – since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the formation of the United Nations – ‘to finally formalise a just treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons to complement the NPT and help advance its goals’. It added: ‘There is no need for more stark reminders of the urgent and long-overdue imperative to rid the world of one of the most inhumane, illegal, dangerous, and indiscriminate weapons ever created,’ it added. ‘We reject the fatalism that the existence of nuclear weapons is a reality and a necessity and we also reject that their spread is inevitable and unpreventable’.4
Recommendations
- Palestine should continue to encourage other states to adhere to the TPNW.
- Palestine should ensure that all the TPNW obligations are implemented domestically, through legal, administrative, and other necessary measures.
- Palestine should conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol with the IAEA. @Palestine should also sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).