Nuclear-weapon-free zone

     Nuclear-weapon-free zones      NW states      Nuclear sharing      NPT only
Treaty Region Land (in sq. km.) States Date in force
Antarctic Antarctica 14,000,000 1961-06-23
Space Outer space 1967-10-10
Tlatelolco Latin America and the Caribbean 21,069,501 33 1969-04-25
Seabed Seabed 1972-05-18
Rarotonga South Pacific 9,008,458 13 1986-12-11[1]
Bangkok ASEAN 4,465,501 10 1997-03-28[2]
Semei Central Asia 4,003,451 5 2009-03-21[3]
Pelindaba Africa 30,221,532 53 2009-07-15
All NWFZs combined: 84,000,000 114 39% of the world population
Nuclear weapons states 41,400,000 9 47% of the world population
Neither NWS nor NWFZ 24,000,000 74 14% of the world population

A nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) is defined by the United Nations as an agreement that a group of states has freely established by treaty or convention that bans the development, manufacturing, control, possession, testing, stationing or transporting of nuclear weapons in a given area, that has mechanisms of verification and control to enforce its obligations, and that is recognized as such by the General Assembly of the United Nations.[4] NWFZs have a similar purpose to, but are distinct from, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to which most countries including five nuclear weapons states are a party. Another term, nuclear-free zone, often means an area that has banned both nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and sometimes nuclear waste and nuclear propulsion, and usually does not mean a UN-acknowledged international treaty.

The NWFZ definition does not count countries or smaller regions that have outlawed nuclear weapons simply by their own law, like Austria with the Atomsperrgesetz in 1999. Similarly the 2+4 Treaty, which led to German reunification, banned nuclear weapons in the new states of Germany (Berlin and former East Germany), but was an agreement only among the six signatory countries, without formal NWFZ mechanisms.

  1. ^ "South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty [Treaty of Rarotonga]" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011.
  2. ^ SEANWFZ Enters Into Force; U.S. Considers Signing Protocol Arms Control Association, April 1997
  3. ^ Nuclear free zone in Central Asia enters into force Saturday The Earth Times, 20 March 2009
  4. ^ Report of the Disarmament Commission, Supplement No. 42 (A/54/42), United Nations, 1999.]