The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) has urged the Government of Ghana to take urgent steps to ratify the United Nations Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) within the shortest possible time as part of the country's long-standing commitment to global peace and security.
Mrs. Theodora Williams Anti, the Ag. Executive Director of the Organisation in a letter to the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made a passionate call for Ghana's ratification of the TPNW. She indicated that Ghana's ratification is more important now as the current Chair of ECOWAS and a member of the UN Security Council, will send a powerful signal that the threat of nuclear weapons is unacceptable and nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
In July, 2021, FOSDA in partnership with the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons and with the support of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) organised a multi-stakeholder meeting in Accra. Which facilitated the development of a roadmap to aid Ghana's speedy ratification of the Treaty, which Ghana already signed in 2017. We call on the Ghana Government to consider implementing the recommendation therein as a commitment to global peace and security.
Since the TPNW entered into force on 22nd January 2021 upon ratification by 50 states; a total of 84 states have ratified the treaty globally. Also, out of the Twenty-nine (29), African States that signed the TPNW eleven (11) have ratified it.
FOSDA is deeply concerned about threats of the use of Nuclear Weapons in the on-going Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Nuclear weapons did not deter the conflict in Ukraine, nor will they help to resolve it. In the hands of any state, these weapons pose an unacceptable threat to all of humanity, risking a catastrophe, widespread harm to civilian populations, as well as radiological and climatic impacts that would reverberate across national boundaries.
Given the heightened risk of nuclear war in recent times, we believe that it is more important than ever before for Ghana to join other counties around the world that have rectified the treaty to advance disarmament. It is for this reason that FOSDA is urging Ghana to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) without further delay.
Theodora W. Anti
Ag. Executive Director
Contact No. 0205336268
Email: Theodora@fosda.org
