[CENTER]TREATY FOR THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (TREATY OF TLATELOLCO)



Opened for Signature: 14 February 1967.
Entered into Force: 25 April 1969.
Number of Signatories: 33 states.
Number of Ratifications: 33 states.
Duration: The treaty is of a permanent nature and shall remain in force indefinitely.
Treaty Text
On 23 October 2002, the Tlatelolco Treaty came into full force throughout the region when Cuba, which was the only state that had not ratified the treaty, de-posited its instrument of ratification. Now all 33 states in the region of Latin America and the Carib-bean have signed and ratified the treaty. The Tlatelolco Treaty has served as a model for all future nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) agreements.
Background: Costa Rica was the first regional state to propose a Latin American nuclear arms control arrangement at an Organization for the American States (OAS) Council meeting in 1958, which sought to prevent the manufacture of nuclear arms or their acquisition from the nuclear weapon states (NWS). Other proposals were unsuccessfully floated within the OAS context during 1958-1960.
French nuclear weapon testing in the Sahara in 1960, together with the South African apartheid regime’s interest in nuclear arms, led the African states to is-sue a call for an African NWFZ, which was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1961. Alone among Latin American states, Brazil supported the African NWFZ resolution and proposed a similar zone in this region. The efforts of Alfonso Garcia Robles as Mexican ambassador to Brazil eventually led in March 1963 to Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador joining Mexico in supporting a Latin American NWFZ.
Treaty Obligations: The treaty aims to prohibit and prevent in the region: (a) the testing, use, manufac-ture, production, or acquisition by any means what-soever of any nuclear weapons, by the Parties them-selves, directly or indirectly, on behalf of anyone else, or in any other way, and (b) the receipt, storage, installation, deployment, and any form of possession

of any nuclear weapons, directly or indirectly, by the Parties themselves, by anyone on their behalf, or in any other way. The Parties also undertake to refrain from engaging in encouraging or authorizing, directly or indirectly, or in any way participating in the test-ing, use, manufacture, production, possession, or control of any nuclear weapons.
Treaty Zone: The treaty covers the region and large sectors of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Verification and Compliance: Verification: Verifi-cation is accomplished by concluding multilateral or bilateral agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the application of its safeguards to nuclear activities of States Parties to the treaty. In addition, the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Carib-bean (OPANAL) is an inter-governmental agency created by the Treaty of Tlatelolco to ensure that the obligations of the treaty are met. Compliance: The General Conference, the supreme organ of the OPANAL agency, will take note of all cases in which any Contracting Party is not complying fully with its obligations under this treaty and shall draw the matter to the attention of the Party concerned, making such recommendations as it deems appropriate. If such non-compliance constitutes a violation of this treaty which might endanger peace and security, the Gen-eral Conference may report simultaneously to the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and to the Council of the Organiza-tion of American States. The General Conference shall likewise report to the IAEA for such purposes as are relevant in accordance with its Statute.
Additional Protocol I provides for the application of the status of de-nuclearization in territories for which, de jure or de facto, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States are interna-tionally responsible, and which lie within the limits of the geographic zone established by the treaty. All four states have acceded to Protocol I. Signed: France on 2 March 1979, the Netherlands on 15 March 1968, United Kingdom on 20 December 1967, and United States on 26 May 1977. Ratified: France on 24 Au-gust 1992, the Netherlands on 26 July 1971, United

Kingdom on 11 December 1969, and United States on 23 November 1981.
Additional Protocol II obliges all NWS to respect the status of denuclearization of the relevant geo-graphic zone and commits them not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against parties to the treaty. All five NWS acceded to the protocol. Ratified: France on 22 March 1974, China on 2 June 1974, United Kingdom on 11 December 1969, United States on 12 May 1971, and USSR on 8 January 1979.
Developments:
2005: On 26-28 April, the Conference of States Par-ties and Signatories of Treaties that establish Nu-clear-Weapon-Free Zones was held in Tlatelolco, Mexico. The Conference adopted a declaration, which reaffirms that nuclear weapons constitute a threat to al humanity, urges nuclear weapons states to adopt negative security assurances, and stresses the importance of the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
2003: The XVIII Session of the General Conference of The Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weap-ons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL) adopted several resolutions related to the Tlatelolco Treaty:
• CG/Res. 439 Status of the Treaty and its Addi-tional Protocols
• CG/Res. 444 Prevention of Radioactive Con-tamination of the Marine Environment within the Framework of the Treaty of Tlatelolco: Trans-portation of radioactive material
• CG/Res. 447 Declarations of Nuclear Powers to the Additional Protocols I and II of the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
2002: On 23 October, Cuba ratified the Tlateloco Treaty. With its ratification, the treaty came into full force throughout the region. Cuba had announced to the UNGA that it would accede to the NPT and ratify the Tlateloco Treaty on 14 October.
1995: On 25 March, Cuba signed the Tlateloco Treaty and signed its amendments in December. However, it did not ratify the treaty. Now all 33 states in the region of Latin America and the Carib-bean had become signatories of the treaty. It took the treaty almost 30 years to secure universality of mem-bership in the region.
1969: The treaty entered into force on 25 April, after 11 states of the region ratified it and exercised the right to waive requirements laid down in Article 28. Subsequently, it becomes effective for each addi-


tional state, individually, after it ratifies the treaty and exercises its right of waiver.
Point of Contact:
Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in
Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL)
Col. Chapultepec Morales
Schiller 326 - 5º piso
México D.F. 11570 México
http://www.opanal.org
Tel: (52-55) 5255-2914, 5255-4198 and 5545-9251
Fax: (52-55) 5255-3748

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