The Arms Control Association announced today that members of the disarmament delegations from Mexico, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa had won the 2017 Arms Control Person of the Year award for having promoted negotiation of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The award was also given to Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, who served as President of the UN Conference at which the treaty was adopted.
The diplomats in Mexico's delegation, headed by Ambassador Jorge Lomónaco Tonda, participated decisively and with great conviction in the negotiations that led to the new treaty's historic adoption on July 7, 2017 in New York.
This outstanding work is in keeping with Mexico's diplomatic tradition of more than 70 years that is seen in the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in February 2017 and established the first nuclear-weapon-free zone in a densely populated territory, and by the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, held in February 2014 in Nayarit, in which 146 countries, with the support of civil society, reaffirmed the need to negotiate and adopt a legally-binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons.
In line with Mexico's leadership in this field, Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on September 20, 2017 at the UN on the day it opened for signing. The Senate approved it on November 28 and Mexico will be one of the first countries to deposit their instrument of ratification.
The 2017 Arms Control Person of the Year was awarded after over 2,500 people from 90 countries voted, the highest number in its history. Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, said that the "the strong affirmative vote for the disarmament teams of Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa, and of Ambassador Whyte Gómez, reflects their key role in negotiating the treaty and seeking a world without nuclear weapons. "
The Mexican government is proud that Mexican diplomats share the award with the other winners, partners committed to nuclear disarmament, and extend to them its cordial and well-deserved congratulations.