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Photo: Youth Group members with the CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo in the centre in the second row. Credit: CTBTO

How Youth Can Help Entry into Force of the CTBT

Viewpoint by Ilya Kursenko

VIENNA (IDN) – For the first time, the youth had a strong presence at the five-day CTBT: Science and Technology 2019 Conference (SnT2019, seventh in a series, in which scientists, industry leaders, policymakers, civil society and academia participated. They gathered in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, to exchange knowledge and share advances in the monitoring and verification technologies relevant to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in a state of limbo for 23 years.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 29 June 2019

NPT Review Conference Will Benefit from CTBT's Entry into Force

By Jamshed Baruah

VIENNA (IDN) – Strongly pleading for a legally binding universal prohibition of nuclear tests, CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo has said that an early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in a state of limbo for 23 years will positively influence the outcome of the 2020 NPT Review Conference.

Zerbo was opening a five-day multidisciplinary conference on intended to further enhance the strong relationship between the scientific and technological community and policy-makers as well the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

: Jamshed Baruah; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 24 June 2019

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) addressing the High-Level Panel “CTBT: Science and Technology in a Changing World” on 24 June at Hofburg Palace, Vienna, as part of the Science and Technology Conference2019 (SnT2019) 24 June-28 June 2019. Credit: CTBTO

Science & Technology Can Contribute to Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The following are extensive excerpts from the statement by Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at the High-Level Panel “CTBT: Science and Technology in a Changing World” on 24 June at Hofburg Palace, Vienna, in the opening session of the Science and Technology Conference2019 (SnT2019) 24 June-28 June 2019.

VIENNA (IDN-INPS) – The world is witnessing a technological revolution through which an unparalleled convergence in scientific and technological innovations are changing almost every aspect of people’s daily lives. Communications, logistics, manufacturing and, yes, war and peace-making have all been, and will continue to be, revolutionized in our lifetimes.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 24 June 2019

Photo: "Baker Shot", part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear test by the United States at Bikini Atoll in 1946. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

USA Claims Russia Flouting Global Ban on Nuclear Testing Too

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Amid mounting signs of a new arms race unleashing between the United States and Russia, which together account for 93 percent of the nuclear weapons around the world, a top Trump Administration official has obliquely accused Russia of violating the global ban on nuclear tests enshrined in the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The allegation comes within days of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the anniversary of the launch of his disarmament agenda 'Securing Our Common Future', in Geneva on May 24.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 29 May 2019

Photo: Ilya Kursenko second from right with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and two other members of the CTBT Youth Group.

Why I Became A CTBTO Youth Group Member

By Ilya Kursenko

MOSCOW (IDN) – It all began with a question to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2016 during the plenary session of the 20th anniversary of CTBTO, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. I asked him back then: “What can the youth do to change the world?” Right after the session, I got invited to join the newly founded Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Youth Group and respond to the question by myself.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; OPINION; 14 February 2019

Photo: Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono co-chairs the ninth Ministerial Meeting of the Friends of the CTBT on September 27. The joint statement, organized by Japan, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands and endorsed by other states, urges North Korea “to sign and ratify the CTBT as a matter of priority.” Credit: CTBTO.

Verification is Key to Denuclearization of North Korea

Viewpoint by Lassina Zerbo

"The CTBTO and its technological tools are uniquely placed to provide adequate verification and to monitor an end to nuclear tests in North Korea," writes Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. This article first appeared on Arms Control Association website on November 1, 2018. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN-INPS) – On October 7, 2018 the U.S. Department of State issued a readout on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meetings in Pyongyang indicating that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled.”

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 20 November 2018

Impressions of a CTBTO Youth Group Member from Russia about Former USSR Nuclear Weapon Test Site

: Ramesh Jaura; MULTIMEDIA; 15 September 2018

Photo: A glimpse of the former nuclear testing site. Credit: Katshuhiro Asagiri, IDN-INPS Multimedia Director.

My Life Will Never be the Same Again

By Ilya Kursenko

ON TRAIN FROM KURCHATOV TO ASTANA (IDN) – A Russian member of the CTBTO Youth Group, llya Kursenko, attended the five-day 2018 Youth International Conference of the CTBTO Youth Group and the Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) which concluded on September 2 in Astana, capital city of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

The participants also travelled to Kurchatov, a town in East Kazakhstan Region in north-east Kazakhstan. Named after Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, the town was once the center of operations for the adjoining Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. The nuclear facilities at Kurchatov are managed by the Kazakhstan Institute of Atomic Energy, a division of the country's National Nuclear Center. <WATCH VIDEO>

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 September 2018

Photo: Dr Zerbo Lassina addressing the UN General Assembly on 6 September 2018. Credit: CTBTO

Test-Ban Treaty Will Produce Tangible Benefits for Humankind

Viewpoint by Dr Lassina Zerbo

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – In a keynote address at the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day Against Nuclear Test on September 6, 2018, CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo exhorted "all countries – small and large – that have not yet signed or ratified" the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) "to do so without hesitation."

The Meeting was convened by Miroslav Lajčák, President of the current session of the General Assembly to commemorate and promote August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 06 September 2018

Photo: Participants of the 2018 CTBTO GEM – Youth International Conference in Astana. In the front is ATOM Project leader, Honorary Ambassador and artist Karipbek Kuyukov. Behind him: Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov (on the right) and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo (on the left). Credit: CTBTO. | Photos of Kazakh Foreign Minister Abdrakhmanov and Dr Zerbo in the text are by Katsuhiro Asagiri, IDN-INPS Multimedia Director.

Calls for Making Global Nuclear Test Ban Legally Binding

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | VIENNA | ASTANA (IDN) – The Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo have called on all States Signatories "to spare no effort to ensure that the nuclear test ban becomes legally binding by achieving the entry into force" of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in limbo for 22 years.

This clarion call is backed by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2019-2020. In a statement issued to mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests (IDANT) on August 29, he declares: "The danger posed by nuclear weapons is particularly concrete when it comes to nuclear tests. Despite a de facto ban, these tests are unfortunately still taking place. Only one year ago, North Korea conducted its most recent nuclear test."