The United Nations General Assembly designated 29 August as International Day against Nuclear Tests by the Resolution A/RES/64/35. 2010 marked the inaugural commemoration of the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The international instrument to put an end to all forms of nuclear testing is the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Unfortunately, this has yet to enter into force.

Forum: International Day against Nuclear Tests 2020. '' Ending Nuclear Testing.'

In each subsequent year, the day has been observed by coordinating various activities throughout the world, such as symposia, conferences, exhibits, competitions, publications, lectures, media broadcasts and other initiatives. On Wednesday, 26 August 2020, at 10:00 am H.E. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the United Nations General Assembly, will convene High-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate and promote the “International day against Nuclear Tests.” In view of the COVID-19, this year, the meeting will be held virtually

Statement by the United Nations Secretary General of the International Day against Nuclear Tests 2020; August 29th.

Commemorated annually since 2010 on the anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan, the International Day Against Nuclear Tests takes on special meaning in 2020 in also marking 75 years since the first-ever nuclear test, code named Trinity, was undertaken in July 1945 in the United States.

Since then, more than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted by at least eight countries, with profound, harmful and long-lasting effects on the environment, human health and the economic development of some of the world’s most fragile regions.

Despite these impacts and the widespread global support for a legally binding prohibition, the Comprehensive-Nuclear-Test Ban has yet to enter into force. I once again urge all states that have not signed or ratified the Treaty to do so without further delay.

The nuclear menace is once again on the rise. A complete ban on nuclear testing is an essential step in preventing the qualitative and quantitative improvement of nuclear weapons and in achieving nuclear disarmament.

On this International Day, we also recognize the survivors of nuclear tests, and the suffering that they have endured and that our world will endure for decades and even generations. The best way to honor the victims of nuclear tests is to prevent any in the future. Nuclear testing is a relic of another age and should have no place in the 21st century.

António Guterres

Campaign: Embrace a world free of Nuclear Weapons.

Over the decades, and especially in recent years, civil society efforts in support of a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing for the most part have been connected to the larger enterprise of achieving the total elimination of nuclear weapons. To help bring the CTBT into force, NGOs, civil society and members of the public, especially in those countries that must ratify the Treaty for it to enter into force, can urge their – and other - governments and parliaments to sign and ratify the treaty. They can also urge their governments to endorse the Secretary-General’s Five Point Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament, which includes bringing the CTBT into force and consideration of negotiating a nuclear weapons convention, backed by a strong system of verification, as has long been proposed at the United Nations. Many entities, such as research institutes, academic institutions and NGOs, are engaged in disarmament-related work, including in relation to the CTBT.

• Non-governmental researchers developed understanding of verification techniques.

• Non-governmental research and advocacy groups monitored the negotiations that led to the 1996 adoption of the CTBT.

• NGOs campaigned to persuade their governments to negotiate, then ratify, the CTBT. Some also critiqued experimental and supercomputing facilities intended to replace nuclear explosive testing.

Treaties and other instruments

• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017)

• Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia (2006)

• Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources (2004)

• Agreement to Regulate the Relationship between the United Nations and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (2000)

• Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (1996)

• African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (1996)

• Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (1995)

• South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (1985)

• Declaration on the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe (1981)

• Declaration on International Cooperation for Disarmament (1979)

• Final Document of the First Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to Disarmament (1978)

• Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof (1971)

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (1968)

• Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (1967)

• Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (1967)

• Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water (1963)

• Declaration on the conversion to peaceful needs of the resources released by disarmament (1962)

• Declaration on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear and Thermonuclear Weapons (1961)

• The Antarctic Treaty (1959)