2023 Treaty Event

The IAEA's Treaty Event provides an opportunity to deposit instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, or to sign, featured treaties. The event aims at promoting universal adherence to the most important multilateral treaties for which the Director General of the IAEA is depositary.  In this respect, as was the case in previous years, the event provides an additional opportunity to deposit instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.

This year's Treaty Event  took place on Monday, 25 September 2023 during the margins of the 67th regular session of the IAEA General Conference.

The following treaties were featured at the event:

• Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident 

• Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency 

• Convention on Nuclear Safety 

• Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of  Radioactive Waste Management 

• Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material 

• Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage 

• Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage 

• Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage 

• Joint Protocol Relating to the Application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Convention 

• Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Atomic Energy Agency

A brief overview of their objectives and key provisions can be found here.

Procedural information

Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval of a multilateral treaty by signatory States, as well as instruments of accession thereto by non-signatory States, must be issued and signed by the Head of State, Head of Government or Minister for Foreign Affairs, and should include all declarations and reservations thereto. A valid instrument expressing a State’s consent to be bound by a particular treaty must include the following: 

• Title of the treaty; 

• Full name and title of the person signing the instrument; 

• Expression of the State’s consent to be bound by the treaty concerned by ratification, acceptance or approval, or by accession, as appropriate; 

• Text of reservations or declarations, if any; 

• Date and place of signature; and 

• Signature of the Head of State, Head of Government or Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

Only the originals of such instruments will be accepted. 

A glossary on select depositary terms can be found here.

Specific information relating to the featured treaties

Except for the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is subject to acceptance by Member States of the Agency, all featured treaties are subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by the signatory States and are open for accession by non-signatory States. 

The Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM), which entered into force on 8 May 2016, is not in the nature of a separate treaty and is subject to ratification, acceptance, or approval by the Contracting Parties to the CPPNM. Therefore, a State not yet party to the CPPNM wishing to join the Amendment should deposit: (a) an instrument of accession to the CPPNM (or, if it is a signatory State, an instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval thereof); and (b) an instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval of the Amendment thereto. Alternatively, that State can deposit a single instrument expressing both (a) its consent to accede to the CPPNM (or, if it is a signatory State, to ratify, accept or approve it) and (b) its consent to ratify, accept or approve the Amendment thereto. 

Instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval of, or of accession to, the Joint Protocol Relating to the Application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Convention can only be accepted from Contracting Parties to either the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (Vienna Convention), or the Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy (Paris Convention). 

Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval of, as well as instruments of accession to, the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) can be accepted only from a State which is a Contracting Party to either the Vienna Convention or the Paris Convention, or which declares that its national law complies with the provisions of the Annex to the CSC. In addition, in the case of a State having on its territory a nuclear installation as defined in the Convention on Nuclear Safety of 17 June 1994, such instruments can be accepted only from a State which is a Contracting Party to that Convention.