In this August 9, 1945 file photo, a mushroom cloud rises moments after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, southern Japan. On two days in August 1945, US planes dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used [File: AP Photo]
Treaty signatories include Africa’s most populous country and Europe’s least populated, but Russia and Nato on the sidelines
An international treaty banning all nuclear weapons that has been signed by 51 countries and that campaigners hope will help raise the profile of global deterrence efforts comes into force on Friday.
Although in some respects the step is largely symbolic because the world’s nuclear powers have not signed up, the treaty will be legally binding on the smaller nations that have endorsed it, and it is backed by the UN leadership.
The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW) outlaws the creation, ownership and deployment of nuclear weapons by signatory states and places obligations on them to assist other victims of nuclear weapons use and testing.
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More News On Global Nuclear Weapons Ban Beginning
First-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons enters into force -- ABC News/AP
United Nations' nuclear weapons ban treaty enters into force, but US, Russia and China among those who won't support it -- ABC News (Australia)
Treaty banning nuclear weapons hailed as it takes effect without signatures from major powers -- SBS
51 ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but not Australia -- ABC News (Australia) Treaty banning nuclear weapons takes effect without German signature -- DW
