Download Susannah Karron Assurance of Non-Nuclear

Susannah Karron
Assurance of Non-Nuclear-Weapon States Against the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
Guatemala
Guatemala strongly believes in a non-nuclear weapon state, and has sought assurance of
non-nuclear weapons for many years. In the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which opened for signature on
February 14, 1967 and entered into force on October 23, 2002, Protocol II, a negative security
assurance, was signed into action. The assurance was ratified by China, France, the United
Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union. As a result, Guatemala was declared a
country in the nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ).
In 2011, Guatemala was the head of a draft General Assembly resolution, calling for all
states to begin a multilateral negotiation and put an abrupt end to a nuclear weapons convention.
On January 13, 2012, Guatemala ratified a proposed United Nations’ treaty banning nuclear
weapon tests, known as the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban. Guatemala wishes to completely
eradicate nuclear testing. Tibor Tóth, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for
the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and believes that ratifying
this treaty near the ten year anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco is a strong advancement for a
nuclear weapon-free world.
In 2013, at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Review
Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Guatemala
signed a joint statement illustrating concerns that the use of nuclear weapons has catastrophic
humanitarian consequences.