Mozambique signs the nuclear weapons prohibition treaty

By Jorge Joaquim

Mozambique signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 18 August 2020 but has not yet ratified it. It participated in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and voted in favour of its adoption.

Mozambique voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that welcomed the adoption of the treaty and called upon “all states that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the treaty at the earliest possible date”.

In 2016, Mozambique voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence the negotiations in 2017 on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

Prior to the adoption of the treaty in 2017, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not subject to a comprehensive, globally applicable treaty prohibition. Mozambique supported calls in the UN General Assembly fill this “legal gap”.

Mozambique is a state party to the 1996 Treaty of Pelindaba, which established Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone.