Nuclear disarmament | Good News for Humankind

More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty became permanent on May 11, 1995, when more than 170 countries gathered in New York City and agreed by consensus to drop its 25-year expiration date. U.S. analysts had once feared 25 to 30 nuclear states within two decades. Today there are nine — a quieter outcome than the 1960s dared hope for.

New Zealand passes law declaring the country a nuclear-free zone

By Peter Schulte / January 1, 1987 / Archive of Human Genius

New Zealand’s nuclear-free law, passed in 1987, turned years of grassroots protest into binding national policy, banning nuclear-powered ships and weapons across the country’s land, waters, and airspace. The push gained urgency after French agents bombed the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985. A small democracy had chosen principle over alliance, and kept it.