The review process of the non-proliferation treaty

Abstract

At the 1995 MPT Review and Extension Conference, the States parties to the Treaty adopted a package of decisions by which the Treaty was extended indefinitely, a new strengthened review process of the implementation of the Treaty’s provisions was to begin in 1997 and, through the principles and objectives on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, benchmarks to measure the performance of all treaty parties, nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear weapon States, were established. The three decisions, together with the resolution on the Middle East, had a far-reaching impact beyond the indefinite extension of the Treaty. The States parties ensured not only that the Treaty would be maintained as the core of the global nuclear-nonproliferation regime, but also that its indefinite extension would both reinforce and render permanent the international legal norm against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.