THE TREATY ON THE NON-PROLIFERATION
OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
( NPT )
(text of the treaty)
The States concluding this Treaty, hereinafter
referred to as the Parties to the Treaty,
Considering the devastation that would be visited
upon all mankind by a nuclear war and the consequent
need to make every effort to avert the danger of
such a war and to take measures to safeguard the
security of peoples,
Believing that the proliferation of nuclear weapons
would seriously enhance the danger of nuclear war,
In conformity with resolutions of the United Nations
General Assembly calling for the conclusion of an
agreement on the prevention of wider dissemination
of nuclear weapons,
Undertaking to co-operate in facilitating the application
of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards
on peaceful nuclear activities,
Expressing their support for research, development
and other efforts to further the application, within
the framework of the International Atomic Energy
Agency safeguards system, of the principle of safeguarding
effectively the flow of source and special fissionable
materials by use of instruments and other techniques
at certain strategic points,
Affirming the principle that the benefits of peaceful
applications of nuclear technology, including any
technological by-products which may be derived by
nuclear-weapon States from the development of nuclear
explosive devices, should be available for peaceful
purposes to all Parties to the Treaty, whether nuclear-weapon
or non-nuclear-weapon States,
Convinced that, in furtherance of this principle,
all Parties to the Treaty are entitled to participate
in the fullest possible exchange of scientific information
for, and to contribute alone or in co-operation with
other States to, the further development of the applications
of atomic energy for peaceful purposes,
Declaring their intention to achieve at the earliest
possible date the cessation of the nuclear arms race
and to undertake effective measures in the direction
of nuclear disarmament,
Urging the co-operation of all States in the attainment
of this objective,
Recalling the determination expressed by the Parties
to the 1963 Treaty banning nuclear weapons tests
in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water
in its Preamble to seek to achieve the discontinuance
of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all
time and to continue negotiations to this end,
Desiring to further the easing of international
tension and the strengthening of trust between States
in order to facilitate the cessation of the manufacture
of nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their
existing stockpiles, and the elimination from national
arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of their
delivery pursuant to a Treaty on general and complete
disarmament under strict and effective international
control,
Recalling that, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations, States
must refrain in their international relations from
the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any State,
or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes
of the United Nations, and that the establishment
and maintenance of international peace and security
are to be promoted with the least diversion for
armaments of the world’s human
and economic resources,
Have agreed as follows:
Article I
Each nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes
not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear
weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control
over such weapons or explosive devices directly,
or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage,
or induce any non-nuclear-weapon State to manufacture
or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear
explosive devices, or control over such weapons or
explosive devices.
Article II
Each non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty
undertakes not to receive the transfer from any transferor
whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive
devices or of control over such weapons or explosive
devices directly, or indirectly; not to manufacture
or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear
explosive devices; and not to seek or receive any
assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons
or other nuclear explosive devices.
Article III
1. Each non-nuclear-weapon State
Party to the Treaty undertakes to accept safeguards,
as set forth in an agreement to be negotiated and
concluded with the International Atomic Energy
Agency in accordance with the Statute of the International
Atomic Energy Agency and the Agency’s safeguards
system, for the exclusive purpose of verification
of the fulfilment of its obligations assumed under
this Treaty with a view to preventing diversion
of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear
weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Procedures
for the safeguards required by this Article shall
be followed with respect to source or special fissionable
material whether it is being produced, processed
or used in any principal nuclear facility or is
outside any such facility. The safeguards required
by this Article shall be applied on all source
or special fissionable material in all peaceful
nuclear activities within the territory of such
State, under its jurisdiction, or carried out under
its control anywhere.
2. Each State Party to the Treaty undertakes not
to provide: (a) source or special fissionable material,
or (b) equipment or material especially designed
or prepared for the processing, use or production
of special fissionable material, to any non-nuclear-weapon
State for peaceful purposes, unless the source or
special fissionable material shall be subject to
the safeguards required by this Article.
3. The safeguards required by this Article shall
be implemented in a manner designed to comply with
Article IV of this Treaty, and to avoid hampering
the economic or technological development of the
Parties or international co-operation in the field
of peaceful nuclear activities, including the international
exchange of nuclear material and equipment for the
processing, use or production of nuclear material
for peaceful purposes in accordance with the provisions
of this Article and the principle of safeguarding
set forth in the Preamble of the Treaty.
4. Non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty
shall conclude agreements with the International
Atomic Energy Agency to meet the requirements of
this Article either individually or together with
other States in accordance with the Statute of the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Negotiation of
such agreements shall commence within 180 days from
the original entry into force of this Treaty. For
States depositing their instruments of ratification
or accession after the 180-day period, negotiation
of such agreements shall commence not later than
the date of such deposit. Such agreements shall enter
into force not later than eighteen months after the
date of initiation of negotiations.
Article IV
1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted
as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties
to the Treaty to develop research, production and
use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without
discrimination and in conformity with Articles I
and II of this Treaty.
2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate,
and have the right to participate in, the fullest
possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific
and technological information for the peaceful uses
of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position
to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone
or together with other States or international organizations
to the further development of the applications of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially
in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party
to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs
of the developing areas of the world.
Article V
Each Party to the Treaty undertakes to take appropriate
measures to ensure that, in accordance with this
Treaty, under appropriate international observation
and through appropriate international procedures,
potential benefits from any peaceful applications
of nuclear explosions will be made available to non-nuclear-weapon
States Party to the Treaty on a non-discriminatory
basis and that the charge to such Parties for the
explosive devices used will be as low as possible
and exclude any charge for research and development.
Non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty shall
be able to obtain such benefits, pursuant to a special
international agreement or agreements, through an
appropriate international body with adequate representation
of non-nuclear-weapon States. Negotiations on this
subject shall commence as soon as possible after
the Treaty enters into force. Non-nuclear-weapon
States Party to the Treaty so desiring may also obtain
such benefits pursuant to bilateral agreements.
Article VI
Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to
pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures
relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at
an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on
a treaty on general and complete disarmament under
strict and effective international control.
Article VII
Nothing in this Treaty affects the right of any
group of States to conclude regional treaties in
order to assure the total absence of nuclear weapons
in their respective territories.
Article VIII
1. Any Party to the Treaty may propose amendments
to this Treaty. The text of any proposed amendment
shall be submitted to the Depositary Governments
which shall circulate it to all Parties to the Treaty.
Thereupon, if requested to do so by one-third or
more of the Parties to the Treaty, the Depositary
Governments shall convene a conference, to which
they shall invite all the Parties to the Treaty,
to consider such an amendment.
2. Any amendment to this Treaty must be approved
by a majority of the votes of all the Parties to
the Treaty, including the votes of all nuclear-weapon
States Party to the Treaty and all other Parties
which, on the date the amendment is circulated, are
members of the Board of Governors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency. The amendment shall enter into
force for each Party that deposits its instrument
of ratification of the amendment upon the deposit
of such instruments of ratification by a majority
of all the Parties, including the instruments of
ratification of all nuclear-weapon States Party to
the Treaty and all other Parties which, on the date
the amendment is circulated, are members of the Board
of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Thereafter, it shall enter into force for any other
Party upon the deposit of its instrument of ratification
of the amendment.
3. Five years after the entry into force of this
Treaty, a conference of Parties to the Treaty shall
be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in order to review
the operation of this Treaty with a view to assuring
that the purposes of the Preamble and the provisions
of the Treaty are being realised. At intervals of
five years thereafter, a majority of the Parties
to the Treaty may obtain, by submitting a proposal
to this effect to the Depositary Governments, the
convening of further conferences with the same objective
of reviewing the operation of the Treaty.
Article IX
1. This Treaty shall be open to all States for
signature. Any State which does not sign the Treaty
before its entry into force in accordance with paragraph
3 of this Article may accede to it at any time.
2. This Treaty shall be subject to ratification
by signatory States. Instruments of ratification
and instruments of accession shall be deposited with
the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics and the United States of America, which
are hereby designated the Depositary Governments.
3. This Treaty shall enter into force after its
ratification by the States, the Governments of which
are designated Depositaries of the Treaty, and forty
other States signatory to this Treaty and the deposit
of their instruments of ratification. For the purposes
of this Treaty, a nuclear-weapon State is one which
has manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or
other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January
1967.
4. For States whose instruments of ratification
or accession are deposited subsequent to the entry
into force of this Treaty, it shall enter into force
on the date of the deposit of their instruments of
ratification or accession.
5. The Depositary Governments shall promptly inform
all signatory and acceding States of the date of
each signature, the date of deposit of each instrument
of ratification or of accession, the date of the
entry into force of this Treaty, and the date of
receipt of any requests for convening a conference
or other notices.
6. This Treaty shall be registered by the Depositary
Governments pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter
of the United Nations.
Article X
1. Each Party shall in exercising its national
sovereignty have the right to withdraw from the Treaty
if it decides that extraordinary events, related
to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized
the supreme interests of its country. It shall give
notice of such withdrawal to all other Parties to
the Treaty and to the United Nations Security Council
three months in advance. Such notice shall include
a statement of the extraordinary events it regards
as having jeopardized its supreme interests.
2. Twenty-five years after the entry into force
of the Treaty, a conference shall be convened to
decide whether the Treaty shall continue in force
indefinitely, or shall be extended for an additional
fixed period or periods. This decision shall be taken
by a majority of the Parties to the Treaty.1
Article XI
This Treaty, the English, Russian, French, Spanish
and Chinese texts of which are equally authentic,
shall be deposited in the archives of the Depositary
Governments. Duly certified copies of this Treaty
shall be transmitted by the Depositary Governments
to the Governments of the signatory and acceding
States.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorized,
have signed this Treaty.
DONE in triplicate, at the cities of London, Moscow
and Washington, the first day of July, one thousand
nine hundred and sixty-eight.
Note:
On 11 May 1995, in accordance with article X, paragraph
2, the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties
to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
decided that the Treaty should continue in force indefinitely
(see decision 3). [back to the text]
Copyright 2000, Department for Disarmament Affairs,
United Nations
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