Map showing participation in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
The full legal text of the treaty is provided below. Considering
how widely accepted the treaty has become, it is remarkably simple
and short for a legal document:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3.1. 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 Agencys safeguards system, for the exclusive
purpose of verification of the fulfillment 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
to 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.
3.2. 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.
3.3. 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 cooperation 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
3.4. 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.
4.1. 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.
4.2. 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 cooperate 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.
5. 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
nondiscriminatory 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8.1. 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.
8.2. 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.
8.3. 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.
9.1. 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.
9.2. 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.
9.3. 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.
9.4. 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.
9.5. 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.
9.6. This Treaty shall be registered by the Depositary
Governments pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United
Nations.
10.1. 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.
10.2. 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.
11. 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.