Malawi Ratifies the Pelindaba Treaty

By Hubert Foy

The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Pelindaba Treaty) is one ratification away from entering into force. The Treaty will enter into force on the date of deposit of the twenty-eighth instrument of ratification. With Malawi depositing its ratification instrument with the African Union (AU) on April 28, 2009, any of the remaining signatory states could ratify, thereby claiming the honor of being the state that tipped the 13-year-old treaty into force.

Ongoing efforts to promote the entry into force of the treaty by the AU, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa, with the support of the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND), Groupe de Recherche et d'Information sur la Paix et la Sécurité (GRIP) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) have intensified. Given renewed hope, fueled in part by U.S. President Obama's April 5, 2009 Prague speech in which he recommitted the United States to arms control and the elimination of nuclear weapons, the opportunity now exist for African states to play a leading role in ensuring that the whole of the Southern Hemisphere is legally nuclear weapons free.

While all 53 members of the AU and Morocco have signed the Treaty, there are (as of May 10, 2009) still 25 signatories that have not yet ratified. These signatories are: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sao Tome & Principe, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia as well as the area known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The Pelindaba Treaty seeks to declare Africa a zone free of nuclear weapons by prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons by any country in the zone, as well as banning the production, testing, acquisition, and stationing of weapons on any of the country in the zone. As an important part of the security architecture of the AU and an important step towards strengthening the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Pelindaba aims to promote international action and solidarity towards regional peace and security as well as promoting nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. More importantly, it facilitates the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes on the continent. To this effect and upon entry into force, the Depository (the AU) is required to convene a conference of all parties in accordance with Article 14 on the establishment of an African Commission on Nuclear Energy (AFCONE) as envisaged under Article 12 of the treaty. AFCONE would promote international cooperation with extra-zonal States for peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.

Like other NWFZ treaties, the Pelindaba Treaty includes three protocols to be signed and ratified by the five nuclear weapon States (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), which will legally bind them to respect the status of the zone and to provide "negative security assurances" to members of the zone. To date, the United Kingdom, France and China have signed and ratified these protocols, but the Russian Federation and the United States have yet to ratify.