The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) was incorporated into the Regional Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme for its contribution and validity in the construction of regional and international peace.
During the XXV Session of the General Conference of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), held on 14 February 2017 in the framework of the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, Dr. Rosa María Fernández Zamora - President of the National Committee for the Memory of the World Programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), presented the Certificate of registration of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in the Regional Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.
The registration of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in that Registry represents an acknowledgment of the documentary value of this international instrument which has marked a milestone in the international regime on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
All the 33 States of Latin America and the Caribbean have signed and ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco. The Treaty remains relevant since it ensures that the Region and adjacent high-seas areas remain free of nuclear weapons. The five nuclear-weapon States (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) signed and ratified Additional Protocol II to the Treaty of Tlatelolco, by means of which they undertake not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the Parties to the Treaty. As a consequence, the Treaty of Tlatelolco established the first nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in a densely populated area of the world and set an example for the establishment of other NWFZs in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia, as well as Mongolia (as a nuclear-weapon-free state).
The Memory of the World Register is a list of documentary heritage that has been approved by the International Consultation Committee (ICC) and ratified as such by UNESCO’s Director-General within the context of the Memory of the World Programme (MoW). Through its recognition, the documentary heritage becomes protected and distributed as such.
With information from UNESCO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.