INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND INSTRUMENTS FOR THE SAFETY, SECURITY AND SAFEGUARDS OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND INSTRUMENTS FOR THE SAFETY, SECURITY AND SAFEGUARDS OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS Under international law, a convention is defined as an agreement which is entered into by state actors or international organizations. Prior to 1969, the rules which regulated the conclusion of Conventions consisted primarily, of customary rules of international law in the old European dispensation and are today codified in what is known as the Vienna convention on the law of treaties, which is considered by many scholars of international law as a trail blazer and the bastion of international law, diplomacy and politics. A treaty as defined by the Vienna convention is ‘’an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by International Law, whether embodied in a single legal instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation”. There are legal implications when a state or an appointed representative of a state appends a signature to a treaty. The legal effect of the signature where it is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval stipulates that a signature does not establish the party’s consent to be bound, rather a signature qualifies the signatory state to proceed to ratification and creates an obligation of good faith to refrain from acts calculated to frustrate the object of the treaty. Ratification, is conscientiously defined as the confirmation or approval of an Act or Agreement previously concluded or professedly done by the party himself or by another, whereby the act as to some or all persons, is given effect (in a legal sense) as if originally authorized by him, with a view to legal and active enforcement of the full extent to which the Act has been ratified. The process of ratification involves two distinct procedural acts; the first being the act of the appropriate organ of the state ,which is the executive organ, in Nigeria’s case and the second being the international procedure of formal exchange or deposit of the instrument of ratification which brings the treaty into force for the ratifying state. In the sense of the former ratification signifies approval while in the latter it is an important act which conveys the state’s consent to be bound by the dictates of the treaty. Upon conclusion of a treaty, the written instruments, which provide formal evidence of consent to be bound by ratification, accession, reservation and other declaration, are placed in the custody of a depository, which may be one or more states or an international organization. The depository functions as a source of publication and provision of information as to the time the treaty comes into force. The United Nations Organization plays an important role as depository of multilateral treaties and the provisions of Article 102 of the UN’s Charter dissuade secret diplomacy and invocation of a treaty’s agreement that are not registered with the UN before any of its organs. Section 12 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides the National Assembly as the sole law making body and no treaty can have the force of law without being enacted or ratified by the National Assembly. The NNRA and other governmental agencies are assiduously enforcing Nigeria’s obligations under various treaties some of which are the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act which it signed in 1968, the comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) signed and ratified in 1988 as well as other treaties which have been ratified by the house. Seminar presented by Aliyu S.