As the General Assembly commemorated and promoted the International Day against Nuclear Tests today, Member States reflected on eight decades since the first nuclear test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, warning that the quest for nuclear disarmament remains unfinished and more urgent than ever.
This is a “legacy we cannot disavow”, but also a “solemn reminder of our mission to prevent the scourge of war and nuclear annihilation”, President of the General Assembly Philémon Yang (Cameroon), told the 193-member organ.
“While progress has been made, nuclear disarmament is not a task that ends,” he added, emphasizing that to “rid the world of nuclear weapons, we must first halt nuclear testing”, which “fuels arms races” and inflicts “devastating impacts on people and planet”.
“Today’s commemoration takes place in a world overshadowed by conflict, mistrust and the looming shadow of nuclear weapons,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, Under Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
As “trust between States continues to erode” and investments in arsenals rise, the “prohibition of all nuclear explosive testing is not merely a technical or procedural matter”, she said. It is a moral and strategic necessity.
The “only path to abolishing nuclear tests is through a legally binding prohibition — respected, implemented, and above all, enforced”, Ms. Nakamitsu said. In the meantime, “the global moratorium on nuclear testing must hold”. Nuclear testing can never be permitted “not as deterrence, not as politics, not under the guise of science”, she stressed.
Nuclear testing’s consequences are “indiscriminate and enduring”, they leave wounds “that can never be fully healed”. The choice must be clear: “To end nuclear testing forever,” she said.
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty ‘a Triumph for Science, Multilateralism, Humanity’
Delivering a keynote address to commemorate the Day, Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Organization said that, following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “over the next 50 years some 2,000 nuclear explosions” scarred our planet, averaging “one test every week” during the cold war.
This had to stop and largely has. Since CTBT’s opening in 1996, “fewer than a dozen tests” have taken place, making the Treaty “a triumph for science, for multilateralism, for humanity”, he said.
The International Monitoring System now includes over 300 facilities that can detect any suspected nuclear test and pinpoint its location within a few kilometres. Crucially, it can also prove when an event “was not a nuclear explosion”, easing tensions, as seen after earthquakes in Iran.
But, the Treaty is still to enter into force, he went on to say. With 187 signatories and 178 ratifications, all nuclear-armed States must maintain their moratoria and those yet to sign or ratify must act. “Having set that record, let’s extend it all the way to 2105, without any testing”, he said.
Working to Prevent Spread of Nuclear Weapons
Vivian Okeke, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Liaison Office in New York, speaking on behalf of Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of IAEA, emphasized that, since its establishment, the Agency has worked to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons while making nuclear science and technology available for peaceful purposes.
Nuclear technology, she noted, diagnoses and cures diseases such as cancer, “feeds the hungry, protects the environment and provides clean energy that powers progress”. In 2024, IAEA supported 151 countries and territories, 36 of them least developed, in tackling some of their most pressing challenges.
She explained that IAEA “continues to assist States to characterize residual radioactivity in areas affected by nuclear-weapons tests” and is “strengthening national capabilities to assess the feasibility of releasing parts of the Semipalatinsk test site to normal economic use”. The Director General has launched initiatives such as “Rays of Hope, ZODIAC, NuTEC Plastics and Atoms4Food”, which are “delivering tangible results for Member States”.
In 2024 alone, she said, IAEA conducted 56 peer-review and advisory services and has held more than 70 training events with over 1,000 participants. “The IAEA is making a tangible contribution towards a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear tests,” she further emphasized.
Oemwa Johnson, a youth from Kiribati, and a fourth-generation nuclear survivor from Kiritimati Island, said that she is a “living embodiment of the long-lasting consequences of nuclear testing”. “When I speak of nuclear testing, I do not speak only from history books; I carry the voices of my ancestors and the lived pain of my family,” she said.
Between 1957 and 1962, she said, the United Kingdom and the United States conducted “some of the most powerful thermonuclear detonations on Kiritimati”, leaving villagers “with no shelter” only a thin blanket to “cover their eyes against the blinding flashes”.
Radiation exposure left survivors with “lasting health issues”. “Two of my father’s siblings were born prematurely and died shortly after birth,” while another “died at 18 after suffering from an undiagnosed neurological illness”, she said. “Nuclear weapons have poisoned our land, ocean and bodies,” she stated, insisting that “nuclear justice means clean-up, reparations and victim assistance”.
In the ensuing discussion, several speakers emphasized the importance of the Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, called on all States, especially those listed in Annex 2 of the Treaty, to ratify it without delay and highlighted the critical role of IAEA.
Nuclear Weapons Represent Threat to Humanity, Crime against Humanity
Among them was Colombia’s delegate, speaking for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), who said the States in her group agree “that the mere existence of nuclear weapons represents a threat to humanity and that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons constitutes a crime against humanity”. The Latin America and the Caribbean region is the only in the world in which all States have ratified the Treaty, she said, calling on States to refrain from conducting nuclear tests, as well as other nuclear explosions or any related experimental testing anywhere in the world, including subcritical tests and those carried out through simulations.
Along similar lines, the representative of Guinea, speaking for the African Group, called on all countries, particularly nuclear-armed States, to consider the consequences of the use and testing of nuclear weapons on human health, the environment and vital economic resources. He also noted the threats posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the risks of automated decision-making in this context.
The representative of the European Union, speaking in its capacity as observer, noted that all its member States have ratified CTBT. The Union has supported the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization with voluntary contributions of more than €29.5 million and will continue to do so. Highlighting the Russian Federation’s decision to revoke its ratification of CTBT, he condemned that country’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” and urged the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to refrain from testing nuclear devices and ballistic missiles and ratify CTBT.
Also speaking today was Ukraine’s delegate who stressed that the Zaporizhzhia plant “will remain an integral part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory", as he “categorially” rejected the Russian Federation’s claims as “legally null and void”. He urged the “immediate and complete withdrawal” of Russian Federation forces from the plant, warning that nuclear safety is “a survival test for mankind”.
Speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia’s representative expressed concern about the recent surge in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s intercontinental ballistic-missile testing and launches and the increased tension in the Korean Peninsula. Noting that all the ASEAN member States have ratified CTBT, he reaffirmed the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. He also noted that 2025 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, also known as the Bangkok Treaty.
Iraq’s delegate, speaking for the Arab Group, recalled the first nuclear test conducted by the United States on 16 July 1945, in the desert of New Mexico. Rejecting the idea that obtaining nuclear weapons is necessary for international security or that some previous commitments are irrelevant, he called on nuclear-armed States to fully eliminate their arsenals and added that this “is the least that they can do”. Despite the tensions in the Middle East, Arab States have actively participated in negotiations related to CTBT and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, he said, calling on Israel, the only country in the region that has not joined the latter, to accede to it.
The representative of Germany, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, said that agreement is one of the clearest demonstrations of what international cooperation can achieve. “What makes the CTBT so successful is that it is not just a piece of paper,” he said, highlighting the role of the International Monitoring System, a truly global network reaching all the way to Antarctica “that works every day, quietly and efficiently, to make sure no nuclear-test explosion goes unnoticed”.
Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Faces Unprecedented Challenges Today
Also highlighting the International Monitoring System, Japan’s delegate noted that the System has 10 monitoring sites in his country, which has further supported this system by providing capacity-building assistance to developing countries every year for 30 years. Noting that the global nuclear non-proliferation regime faces unprecedented challenges today — 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — he expressed concern about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear and missile development.
Kazakhstan’s delegate, recalling “Semipalatinsk, where more than 450 nuclear explosions scarred our land and people”, said that, on 29 August 1991, his country closed this site forever. Kazakhstan renounced the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal, he noted, adding that this legacy continues “to define who we are and our commitment to disarmament”.
The representative of the Marshall Islands, recalling 67 United States atmospheric tests from 1946 to 1958, said that whole islands were destroyed and fallout rained on children “mistaken for snow”. The story of the Marshall Islands “cannot be a story of victimhood”, but a living reminder never to repeat nuclear testing. The Marshall Islands also deserves acknowledgement and an apology for what has been done, he said.
