March 5th marked the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was an opportunity for governments and civil society to reflect on the current challenges facing the treaty before the Review Conference in May, and to consider ways to fulfil the promise at the core of the NPT — a nuclear-weapon-free world.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) teamed up with Reaching Critical Will, the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs to host an event at UN Headquarters marking the occasion. Representatives from each of our organizations spoke, as did Ambassador Mona Juul from Norway (her remarks will be available shortly).

Roughly 70 people attended the event, about two-thirds of them diplomats and one-third from NGOs. The countries represented were the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Norway, Jordan, the Philippines, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Egypt, Japan, Equatorial Guinea, Syria, Zambia and Finland.