Former foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and ex-interior minister Ruth Dreifuss joined the appeal on Monday, together with Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and others.
The UN treaty banning weapons of mass destruction came into force in 2021.
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Switzerland’s wait-and-see approach to nuclear ban treaty is sensible
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Switzerland helped negotiate an international treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons, so why hasn’t it signed or ratified it?
Switzerland helped draft the treaty but has so far refused to sign up to it, despite being the depositary state for the Geneva Conventions.
So far, 68 countries have signed TPNW and become state parties, including Austria, Ireland, Mexico and New Zealand. But countries that already possessed nuclear weapons, and their allies, refused to take part in the formulation of TPNW.
Switzerland has ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons but has proven reticent to sign TPNW. The government cites potential conflicts with Switzerland’s relationship with NATO countries.
Ministers have pledged to look at the TPNW issue again next year.
“The Swiss position is that Switzerland can support the TPNW once it becomes apparent that it will help, rather than hinder, worldwide nuclear abolition,” Stephen Herzog, a senior researcher in nuclear arms control at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, wrote in a swissinfo.ch opinion piece in July.
“This conference must set the course for an urgently needed change: to reduce the role of nuclear weapons, to reduce the likelihood of a nuclear accident or usage as a result of a misunderstanding,” he saidExternal link.
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Switzerland’s wait-and-see approach to nuclear ban treaty is sensible
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Switzerland helped negotiate an international treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons, so why hasn't it signed or ratified it?
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The Swiss Federal Council (executive body) has postponed a decision on ratifying the United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons until 2020.
Swiss still say no to treaty banning nuclear weapons
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A total of 122 states, including Switzerland, adopted the treaty at the UN in July 2017. The TPNW will enter into force when at least 50 countries ratify it. Signatories have obligations not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The agreement also prohibits the deployment of nuclear…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.