Signature, Ratification, Accession, and Entry-into-Force
Scott Spence · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
This Convention shall be open for signature for all States before its entry into force. This Convention shall be subject to ratification by States Signatories according to their respective constitutional processes. Any State which does not sign this Convention before its entry into force may accede to it at any time thereafter. Articles XVIII to XXI provide the legal mechanism by which States can join the Convention and become a party to it. These Articles are important tools to enable universal adherence by all States to the Convention, which ‘is essential to achieving its object and purpose and to enhancing the security of States Parties, as well as international peace and security’, recognizing that ‘the objectives of the Convention will not be fully realised as long as there remains even a single State not Party that could possess or acquire such weapons’.1