The 191-member UN General Assembly approved a nuclear terrorism treaty today that will oblige governments to punish those who illegally possess atomic devices or radioactive materials.
The document, negotiated for seven years after Russia proposed the accord, is the 13th anti-terrorism convention and the first completed since the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The pact will be open for signature on September 14th in New York during a high-level summit and needs ratification from 22 nations to become international law. It passed the General Assembly by consensus, without a vote.
"By its action today, the General Assembly has shown that it can, when it has the political will, play an important role in the global fight against terrorism," US deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday told the assembly.
The accord, called the "International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism," is meant to stop clandestine networks from using or possessing nuclear weapons.
It obligates governments to prosecute or extradite individuals who possess radioactive materials or nuclear devices or those who threaten others while possessing such materials. The text also calls for exchanges of information and assistance among governments.
Russia introduced the treaty in 1998 to keep "loose nukes" from falling into the hands of terrorist groups. At the time, Alexander Lebed, then the Russian national security chief, said Moscow could not account for about 100 suitcase-sized nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported an increase in incidents involving illicit trafficking of nuclear or other radioactive material: 650 confirmed cases since 1993, including nearly 100 last year alone.
The text of the treaty was approved earlier this month, with Mexico forging key compromises in the assembly's legal panel.