The international community took a historic step on July 7, when it adopted the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, after a negotiating process that would not have been possible without the leadership of Brazil, South Africa, Austria, Ireland, Mexico and Nigeria.
These countries were joined by a great majority of the UN member states, which understood the humanitarian dimension of the initiative and actively participated in the negotiating conference with constructive spirit and responsibility, to fill an unacceptable legal gap in the field of disarmament.
Legally binding instruments had already banned chemical and bacteriological weapons. But nuclear weapons, capable of destroying life on the planet, lacked a prohibition treaty.
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