AW: [ RadSafe ] CTBTO press release....clarification/question

[Franz Schönhofer]

Dear Mark,

You address a very interesting question, which has myself bothered for years
- namely, what is the difference between signing a treaty and ratifying it. 
The difference is simply, that signing a treaty is a kind of acknowledging
its existance and to be considered as an important task to be incorporated
into national legislation, but to put it into legislative force and being a
compulsary part of the state legislation it needs ratification of the
respective parliament. 

You (and RADSAFErs) may draw their conclusions from the list of those states
which have not signed the treaty, not ratified it etc. I think this should
put the "discussion" about "rogue states" and especially North Korea (the
politics of which I condemn) etc into perspective. If somebody has problems
to understand my cautious words, he or she is kindly invited to discuss this
with me on a private basis. I am not afraid about an open discussion, but I
think a flood of messages from a few "hard core" nationalists and even
military personal posting from their military e-mail connections would
disturb RADSAFE. 

I remember being at a CTBTO Plenary Meeting some years ago, when the US
representative - it seems that it was reluctantly - read from a piece of
paper that the USA would not support any more the CTBTO by active
cooperation. The delegates stayed there and they were obviously very annoyed
that the data center, which existed in the USA was transferred to Europe.

Food for thoughts.

Franz 

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Miller, Mark L
Gesendet: Freitag, 29. Mai 2009 16:09
An: 'radsafe at radlab.nl'
Betreff: [ RadSafe ] CTBTO press release....clarification/question

 The way I read it, the U.S. has signed the treaty, but NOT ratified it.
What's the distinction?

Background:
180 States, the vast majority of the international community, have signed
the CTBT, underscoring their support for a definitive ban on nuclear
testing. 148 of these have also ratified the Treaty. To enter into force,
however, the CTBT must be signed and ratified by 44 specific States. These
States participated in the negotiations of the Treaty in 1996 and possessed
nuclear power or research reactors at the time. Thirty-five of these States
have ratified the Treaty, including the three nuclear weapon States France,
Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. Of the nine remaining States,
China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed the
Treaty, whereas the DPRK, India and Pakistan have not yet signed it.

CTBTO press release
http://www.ctbto.org/press-centre/highlights/2009/ctbtos-initial-findings-on
-the-dprks-2009-announced-nuclear-test/


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