The Birth of An Organization

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have described the CTBT and the negotiations that created the Treaty, a process that culminated with the opening for signature of the CTBT on 24 September 1996. During the final stages of the CTBT negotiations in the CD, the negotiators faced the additional challenge of laying the foundation for the organization that on behalf of all States Signatories would be entrusted with the task of preparing for the entry into force of the CTBT. The negotiations of the “Text on the Establishment of a Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization” (briefly, the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, or, as also used in this book, the PrepCom) were successfully concluded in the CD. This text was then adopted in a resolution passed at a meeting of States Signatories in New York on 19 November, 1996, one day prior to convening the first session of this new organization.