Initiative to sign Switzerland up to UN nuclear arms ban treaty submitted

Popular initiative to ban nuclear weapons Keystone-SDA

Citizens will decide whether Switzerland will join the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). A citizens' committee submitted more than 135,000 signatures to the Federal Chancellery in Bern on Tuesday.

The TPNW came into force in 2021 and bans nuclear weapons under international law. It closes a loophole in international humanitarian law: nuclear weapons are now explicitly prohibited like other weapons of mass destruction.

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Switzerland took part in the negotiation of the treaty, supported its adoption at the UN in 2017, and Parliament called on the government to accede to it in 2018. Despite this, the governing Federal Council is against Switzerland joining.

Security at stake

According to Annette Wildi, a member of the Swiss Alliance for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the TPNW is the most appropriate instrument for guaranteeing long-term security.

The treaty corresponds to the fundamental principles of Swiss foreign policy and would strengthen the government’s credibility in the field of humanitarian diplomacy. This initiative shows that support for a ban on nuclear weapons is widespread among the population.

Switzerland does not possess nuclear weapons, has no intention of acquiring them and is not involved in nuclear deterrence, so there is no objective reason to stay away from this ban,” adds Joris Fricker of the Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA).

According to a recent poll, 72% of Swiss citizens voted in favour of signing up to TPNW. Since its entry into force in 2021, almost 100 countries have signed up to this UN General Assembly document, 74 of which have ratified it.

The government prefers non-proliferation

The Federal Council again refused to sign the treaty in March 2024, believing that Switzerland’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was more in line with its objectives.

This treaty has been in force since 1977 and has been signed by 191 member states, including the nuclear powers the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. The TPNW, on the other hand, is not recognised by countries with nuclear weapons or by almost all Western and European countries.

According to the government, accession to the ban treaty is also not in Switzerland’s interests in the current international context, where security has come back to the fore with a new war in Europe.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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