A nuclear-weapons-free zone, or NWFZ is defined[4] by the United Nations as an agreement which a group of states has freely established by treaty or convention, that bans the use, development, or deployment 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.
NWFZs do not cover international waters (where there is freedom of the seas) or transit of nuclear missiles through space (as opposed to deployment of nuclear weapons in space).
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; also, the 2+4 Treaty, at the end of the Cold War, banned nuclear weapons in the six states, which joined to Germany 1990 (area of Berlin and former East Germany), but was an agreement only among the four Allies and two German states.
NWFZs have a similar purpose to, but are distinct from, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which all countries except for four nuclear weapons states are party. Another term, nuclear-free zone, often means an area which has banned both nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and usually does not mean a UN-acknowledged international treaty.
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Today there are five zones covering continental or subcontinental groups of countries (including their territorial waters and airspace), one UN-recognized zone consisting of a single country, Mongolia, and three governing Antarctica, the seabed, and outer space which are not part of any state. The Antarctic, seabed, and space zones preceded all but one of the zones on national territories. Most of the Earth's oceans above the seabed are not covered by NWFZs since freedom of the seas restricts restrictions in international waters.
As of 15 July 2009[update] when the African NWFZ came into force, the six land zones cover 56% of the Earth's land area of 149 million square kilometers and 60% of the 193 states on Earth, up from 34% and 30% the previous year; however only 39% of the world's population lives in NWFZs, while the nine nuclear weapons states have 28% of world land area area and 46% of world population.
The Antarctic, Latin American, and South Pacific zones are defined by lines of latitude and longitude, except for the northwestern boundary of the South Pacific zone which follows the limit of Australian territorial waters, and these three zones form a contiguous area, though treaty provisions do not apply to international waters within that area. In contrast, the Southeast Asian zone is defined as the territories of its members including their Exclusive Economic Zones, and the African zone is also defined as the countries and territories considered part of Africa by the OAU (now the African Union) which include islands close to Africa and Madagascar. An AU member, Mauritius, claims the British Indian Ocean Territory where Diego Garcia is currently a US military base.
| Treaty | Britain | France | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tlatelolco | Anguilla, Virgin Islands Caymans, Turks & Caicos Falklands, South Georgia |
French Guiana Guadeloupe, Martinique St Barthélemy, St Martin |
Puerto Rico Virgin Islands USMOI |
| Rarotonga | Pitcairn Island | Fr. Polynesia, New Caledonia Wallis & Futuna |
Am. Samoa |
| Pelindaba | Br. Indian Ocean Territory | Réunion, Mayotte, Îles Éparses |
NWFZs do cover most territories belonging to nuclear weapons states that are situated inside NWFZ boundaries; all are small islands except for French Guiana. However, the U.S. signed but has not ratified Protocol I to the Treaty of Rarotonga which would apply to American Samoa and the U.S. and Britain dispute the African NWFZ's applicability to Diego Garcia which is an American military base.
All countries without nuclear weapons are parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, as are the 5 NPT-sanctioned nuclear weapon states.
There have been NWFZ proposals for the Middle East (e.g. Nuclear program of Iran#Nuclear Free Zone in the Mideast, 2009 UN proposal[5], 2011 IAEA forum[6]), the Korean Peninsula, Central Europe, South Asia, and the Arctic.[7]
The majority of non-NWS non-NWFZ states are members of (or geographically protected by) collective security alliances with Western powers:
The above categories cover all European countries west of the former Soviet Union as well as the Baltic states, Turkey, and Canada.
24 other Eurasian countries do not have nuclear weapons or an NWFZ:
Because few prevailing winds cross the Equator, effects of nuclear explosions in the Northern Hemisphere might send less fallout to the Southern Hemisphere. (This fact was used in the book and film On the Beach, although there the Southern Hemisphere eventually succumbs as well.)
The five southern NWFZs cover Southern Hemisphere lands except East Timor which is in the process of joining ASEAN, and islands north of the 60th parallel south, east of the 20th meridian west, and west of the 115th meridian east, but outside of African, Australian or Indonesian territorial waters, which combined have less than 8000 km² of land area, mostly in Kerguelen:
In 1994 states of the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone issued a "Declaration on the Denuclearization of the South Atlantic" which the U.N. General Assembly endorsed but the U.S., U.K., and France still opposed.[8]
| Region | All of | Parts of |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | Marianas, FSM, Marshalls, Palau | Hawaii (all but NW), USMOI |
| Arabia | Yemen | Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman |
| South Asia | Maldives, Sri Lanka | Peninsular India, Bangladesh |
| China | Hainan | Yunnan, Guangdong/Xi, Taiwan |
The Latin American, African, South Pacific and Southeast Asian zones also cover most land in the tropics, but not some Northern Hemisphere areas south of the Tropic of Cancer. Most tropical land outside of NWFZs is in India and the Arabian Peninsula.
Little of the land area covered by the five southern Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones extends north of the Tropic of Cancer: only northern Mexico, northern Bahamas, northern Myanmar, and North Africa. However, the Central Asian and Mongolian zones are entirely in the North Temperate Zone.
Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, are the only countries in the zones using nuclear power for electricity, with two nuclear plants each except Argentina with three. South Africa formerly had a nuclear weapons program which it terminated in 1994.
Argentina and Brazil are known to operate uranium enrichment facilities. Countries that had enrichment programs in the past include Libya and South Africa, although Libya's facility was never operational. Australia has announced its intention to pursue commercial enrichment, and is actively researching laser enrichment.