122 countries adopt global treaty banning nuclear weapons

– Delegitimizing nuclear weapons –

Led by Austria, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and New Zealand, 141 countries joined in drafting the treaty that they hope will increase pressure on nuclear states to take disarmament more seriously.

Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland voted in favor as did Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Kazakhstan and many African and Latin American countries.

“We have managed to sow the first seeds of a world free of nuclear weapons,” said Costa Rica’s ambassador, Elayne Whyte Gomez, the president of the UN conference that negotiated the treaty.

The International Committee of the Red Cross hailed it as a “historic step towards delegitimizing” nuclear weapons and declared the adoption “an important victory for our shared humanity.”

Disarmament campaigners say the treaty will go a long way in increasing the stigma associated with nuclear weapons and will have an impact on public opinion.

“The key thing is that it changes the legal landscape,” said Richard Moyes, director of the British-based organization Article 36.

“It stops states with nuclear weapons from being able to hide behind the idea that they are not illegal.”

“We hope that today marks the beginning of the end of the nuclear age,” said Beatrice Fihn, director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

“It is beyond question that nuclear weapons violate the laws of war and pose a clear danger to global security.”

The treaty will be open for signatures as of September 20 and will enter into force when 50 countries have ratified it.