Democratic Republic of the Congo ratifies the CTBT bringing the total Annex 2 States to ratify to thirty-three

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has deposited its instrument of ratification with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in his capacity as Depositary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The ratification was deposited by President Kabila of the DR Congo on 28 September 2004 at the United Nations in New York.

The ratification by the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a major step towards the entry into force of the Treaty, as it is one of the 44 Annex 2 States which must sign and ratify the Treaty before it can enter into force. These 44 States formally participated in the 1996 Conference on Disarmament and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at that time. Annex 2 ratifications now stand at 33, leaving just eleven Annex 2 States still to ratify.

The total number of ratifications in the Africa geographical region now stands at 25, with a total of 118 worldwide. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear weapon test explosions. Drafted at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 September 1996, the Treaty was opened for signature on 24 September 1996. It marked its eighth anniversary since its opening on 24 September 2004.

The 33 Annex 2 States which have signed and ratified the Treaty are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Eight further Annex 2 States have signed the Treaty but not ratified it, these are Egypt, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, the United States of America and Viet Nam. The remaining three Annex 2 States which have neither signed nor ratified the treaty are India, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Pakistan.