The Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly adopted a resolution in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) at its thirty-fifth Session earlier this month.
The resolution, entitled "Inter-American support for the CTBT" was adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on 7 June 2005 in Florida, United States of America. It is the sixth such resolution to have been adopted by the OAS General Assembly since 2000.
The OAS, which has 34 Member States, is the leading political forum for multilateral dialogue and action in the American region. Major policies and directions are established by the General Assembly, which brings together the Hemisphere’s foreign ministers once a year.
The OAS plays a central role in working towards many of the goals shared by the countries of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, including the promotion of peace and security.
The resolution urges all States of the Hemisphere, to implement the "Measures to Promote the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)" adopted at the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT, which took place in Vienna, September 2003.
It urges all States of the Hemisphere to attend and fully participate in the next Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT, which will take place in New York, United States of America, from 21 to 23 September 2005.
The resolution also urges those States of the Hemisphere that have not yet done so, in particular States whose signature and ratification are required for the Treaty to enter into force, to sign and ratify so that the Treaty may enter into force as soon as possible.
In addition, it urges States to refrain from contravening the spirit of the obligations of the Treaty and to maintain in particular the moratorium on all nuclear testing.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear weapon test explosions in any environment. To date the Treaty has been signed by 175 States and ratified by 121 States. Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and opened for signature on 24 September 1996, the Treaty must be ratified by 44 named States before it can enter into force.
The US signed the treaty under President Clinton, but President Bush has refused to promote passage in the Senate. In the early months of the administration’s first term, Bush aides tried to "bury" the treaty in order to prevent it from being taken up for consideration by the Senate in the future.
Critics of Bush’s policies on nuclear weapons say that refusing to adopt the treaty signals the administration’s intention to develop ilegally a new generation of nuclear weapons.
The OAS move comes after a series of defeats for the administration’s Latin America policy. The OAS refused to adopt a US resolution aimed at isolating and criticizing Venezuela. Leading countries rejected Bush’s call for OAS intervention in Latin American countries he thinks need democracy. And, at the outset of the meeting, two Bush-backed candidates for OAS general secretary were overlooked in favor of Jose Miguel Insulza, the Chilean foreign minister who has expressed support for non-intervention and Venezuela’s sovereignty.
--Reach Joel Wendland at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.
