Year
1997
Abstract
“Programme 93+2” is dead - long live “Programme 93+2”! The Board of Governors of the IAEA has in May 1997 taken an historical decision by adopting a new legal instrument that brings to an end a political and legal process initiated in the early nineties aimed at strengthening the IAEA safeguards system. The programme of research and development dubbed “Programme 93+2” has now definitively run its course and reached the end of the road. As more and more Member States of the IAEA come forward to sign the Protocol, it will rise again - like a phoenix - span its wings over the safeguards system and hopefully fulfil the expectations placed in it. After years of labour, the IAEA has started to implement a new safeguards system - the Strengthened Safeguards System, as now officially called - which introduces an important new dimension to the non-proliferation undertakings of the world community. After the indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in May 1995 and the adoption of a first set of strengthening measures by the Board in June 1995, the Protocol will give safeguards a more solid footing in case its implementation turns out to be as successful as the political acceptance of recent years.