The Second Decade of Evolution in the International Law and Weapons of Mass Destruction: UN Security Resolution 1540 at a Glance

Abstract

Thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair trigger alert. More states have sought and acquired them. Nuclear tests have continued. And every day, we live with the threat that weapons of mass destruction could be stolen, sold or slip away.

— UN Secretary General Ban Ki-mooni

On April 28, 2004 the UN Security Council unanimously voted to adopt Resolution 1540, a measure aimed at preventing non-state actors from acquiring nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, their means of delivery, and related materials. The Resolution filled a gap in international law by addressing the risk that non-state actors might obtain, proliferate, or use weapons of mass destruction.

Adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, Resolution 1540 formally establishes the proliferation and possession of WMD by non-state actors as ― a threat to international peace and security.‖ The Resolution mirrors the approach taken under SC Resolution 1373 in 2001, which required all states to adopt national counter-terrorism laws, and imposes legally binding obligations on all states to adopt ― appropriate effective‖ measures to prevent the proliferation of WMD to non-state actors. This paper aims to assess perspectives on, and attitudes towards, Resolution 1540 and progress made in its implementation, with a particular focus on the traditional international legal approaches to WMD and the evolution in international law in the second decade of WMD.

Keywords: Weapons of mass destruction; United Nations Security Council; Non-state actors; Nonproliferation