ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of the arguments that were employed in the Humanitarian Initiative and the process leading to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). A key motivation behind the Humanitarian Initiative was the wish to re-frame the nuclear weapons discourse. The Humanitarian Initiative and the resulting TPNW, challenged the parameters of the nuclear weapons discourse in an “an expression of collective resistance to those aspects of nuclear hegemony, nuclear hierarchy, and practices of nuclear control that legitimize and perpetuate the existence of nuclear weapons, the practice of nuclear deterrence, and the risks of catastrophic nuclear violence”. The human security arguments about the humanitarian consequences and the risks of nuclear weapons leads to an appeal to the sense of responsibility of all States and to a call for action to strengthen the normative framework of the nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation regime.
