CTBT - Major Provisions

The major provisions of the CTBT include:

• prohibition of all nuclear tests;
• establishment of an extensive International Monitoring System to detect nuclear explosions;
• opportunity for countries that suspect others of cheating to perform challenge inspections to determine whether such cheating has occurred; and
• establishment of a new international organization to implement these verification provisions, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), based in Vienna.

Entry into Force. For the CTBT to enter into force, it must be signed and then ratified by the 44 countries that in 1996 possessed nuclear research or power reactors. This group includes all of the countries that are nuclear weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, and China), the three other states known or believed to possess nuclear weapons (India, Israel, and Pakistan), several countries thought to be trying to develop nuclear weapons (including Iran and North Korea), as well as countries with the capability to develop nuclear weapons. A number of these countries have not signed or have not ratified the CTBT, creating uncertainty about when and if the treaty will become legally binding. As of September 2006, 41 of the 44 states that must ratify the treaty had signed, but only 34 of the 44 had ratified. The United States Senate refused to ratify the CTBT in 1999. The Bush administration opposes the CTBT, and in 2005 it significantly cut funding for the CTBTO. Some of the other nuclear-capable countries that have not ratified the treaty are China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.

In September 2005, the Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force of the CTBT, adopted a final declaration that urged all states to sign and ratify the treaty without delay and called upon all states to maintain voluntary bans on nuclear tests until the CTBT becomes effective. The Conference also called on the CTBTO to continue building all elements of the verification regime, and to promote the benefits of the civil and scientific applications of the verification technologies in such areas as disaster alert systems and environmental monitoring.

Further Reading:

	CRS, Jonathan Medalia, "Nuclear Weapons: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty"
	Arms Control Association, The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
	NTI, Lawrence Scheinman, "The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty"
	Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force of CTBT, Draft Final Declaration, September 21, 2005
	The Acronym Institute, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
	Arms Control Today, Oliver Meier, "Hard Cases Stymie Test Ban Treaty"
	Disarmament Diplomacy, Daryl Kimball, "Keeping Test Ban Hopes Alive: The 2005 CTBT Entry-Into-Force Conference"