TO COMPREHENSIVELY BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING AND HALT ALL PRESENT NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTS

Resolution adopted by 933 votes to 65, with 356 abstentions
by the 94th Inter-Parliamentary Conference
(Bucharest, 13 October 1995)

The 94th Inter-Parliamentary Conference,

Recalling the commitment made by all governments, those of China and France included, at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to exercise the utmost restraint on nuclear weapons testing, and therefore profoundly regretting the further nuclear weapons tests conducted on 10 August, 6 September and 2 October 1995 by those two States,

Hoping that these tests will not complicate the already difficult negotiations under way on a comprehensive test ban treaty and make it more difficult to achieve a truly comprehensive and internationally verifiable treaty,

Noting with approval the undertakings of the Governments of China, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and France to support a comprehensive test ban treaty which prohibits all nuclear weapons test explosions,

Recalling that the Inter-Parliamentary Union has a duty to promote the cause of international peace and security, nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,

Recalling also recent resolutions of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on nuclear disarmament and the elimination of nuclear proliferation, especially that of the 91st Conference (Paris, March 1994) entitled "The importance of adhering to the obligations specified in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons",

Recalling finally the horrific effects of the use of nuclear weapons of war 50 years ago at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

Convinced that the right of all to life, health, development and a clean environment now and in the future is compromised by the existence and continued testing of nuclear weapons,

1. Appeals to the Government of France to abandon its current series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific, to the Government of the People's Republic of China to put an immediate end to its nuclear weapons testing programme, and to all Governments with nuclear weapons testing facilities to close them permanently;

2. Calls on all States which possess or have the potential to possess nuclear weapons to abide by a global nuclear testing moratorium until this is superseded by a comprehensive test ban treaty;

3. Urges all States, especially those with nuclear weapons, to work for and actively support the conclusion and signature, at the earliest possible date and by the end of 1996 at the latest, of a truly comprehensive and internationally verifiable test ban treaty prohibiting all nuclear weapons test explosions;

4. Calls on all governments to work for the regulation and eventual elimination of all production, stockpiling, trafficking and transfer of fissile material used for the production of nuclear weapons;

5. Urges all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to give their strong and unequivocal support to the early conclusion of a truly comprehensive and internationally verifiable test ban treaty as an essential step towards preventing and curbing horizontal and vertical nuclear weapons proliferation and attaining the ultimate goal of total elimination of nuclear weapons.