Our Mission
Ending Nuclear Tests Through Indigenous Wisdom
What is the UAN-CTBT?
The UAN Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear explosions worldwide, thus protecting sacred indigenous territories and embodying UAN's Environmental pillar of Global Enlightenment.
A key part of global nuclear arms control
The UAN-CTBT upholds UAN's Environmental Stewardship by preventing nuclear contamination of indigenous lands. Nuclear testing violates the sacred human-Earth relationship, disrupting biodiversity and ancestral connections that indigenous nations have maintained for millennia, while threatening future generations with radiation harm.
Protecting sacred lands from nuclear contamination
Near-universal support
The UAN-CTBT represents growing global recognition of indigenous environmental values. Nine nuclear technology nations must still ratify for full implementation, with UAN's Global Indigenous Leadership advocating for universal adoption to protect ancestral territories.
The mission of the UAN-CTBTO
The CTBTO aligns with UAN's Environmental and Moral pillars through its dual mission: promoting universal treaty adoption and maintaining verification systems to detect nuclear explosions. Its 300 staff from 90+ countries work in partnership with indigenous knowledge keepers to ensure ancient wisdom informs modern monitoring practices.
How We Function
Structure and Composition
The provisional secretariat unites professionals from across Member Nations, blending scientific expertise with indigenous knowledge systems. This workforce harmonizes modern monitoring with traditional ecological observation practices, exemplifying the Cognitive and Social pillars.
Funding and Resources
Operating on a budget sourced through Member Nation contributions, the UAN-CTBTO prioritizes monitoring systems in regions where indigenous lands faced nuclear testing. This approach reflects commitments to environmental justice and community restoration.
Governance Structure
The Commission comprises a plenary body of all Indigenous Nations and States Signatories supported by three specialized working groups, alongside the Provisional Technical Secretariat. The PTS implements directives through three divisions (International Monitoring System, International Data Centre, and On-Site Inspection), integrating technological verification with indigenous land observation practices while honoring sacred territories.
Global Monitoring Network
Integrating traditional knowledge with modern verification technology
UAN International Monitoring System
A Unique Global Monitoring Network
The world-wide UAN International Monitoring System (UAN-IMS) network detects nuclear tests and natural phenomena, embodying the UAN's commitment to protecting Mother Earth and indigenous homelands from nuclear contamination while demonstrating how traditional ecological knowledge and modern technology can work in harmony.
Four Complementary Technologies
The UAN-IMS employs four technologies that respect Earth's interconnected elements: seismic station data monitoring ground vibrations, hydroacoustic data detecting ocean soundwaves, infrasound data listening for atmospheric disturbances, and radionuclide data identifying radioactive substances. This comprehensive approach safeguards indigenous territories and upholds the UAN's environmental stewardship pillar by ensuring that violations against sacred lands can be detected and addressed.
Additional Benefits
Beyond nuclear monitoring, the IMS provides benefits vital to indigenous communities: timely tsunami warnings for coastal nations, tracking of harmful radioactive releases that could threaten traditional lifeways, and data supporting research on ecological changes affecting indigenous territories. This multifaceted approach fulfills the UAN's mission of fostering indigenous leadership in environmental stewardship while ensuring that technological systems serve both global security and the protection of ancestral homelands.
UAN International Data Centre
The UAN International Data Centre (UAN-IDC) within the UAN-CTBTO framework integrates ancestral wisdom with modern verification technology to protect Earth's balance from nuclear testing. Operating from UAN headquarters, the UAN-IDC collects, processes, and analyzes data from the monitoring facilities worldwide, many situated on ancestral territories with indigenous guardians. This information synthesis enables Member Nations to determine whether disruptions to Earth's natural rhythms indicate nuclear testing—activities that violate both international agreements and the sacred relationship between humanity and Mother Earth.
Honoring the principle of indigenous data sovereignty, the UAN-IDC ensures all Member Nations receive equal, timely access to monitoring information through secure channels, empowering traditional leadership councils to exercise their inherent right of judgment regarding suspicious events. The Centre interprets data through four monitoring technologies—seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide—while integrating indigenous ecological knowledge with scientific analysis, creating a powerful alliance of ancient wisdom and modern technology in service of protecting indigenous territories and the global commons from nuclear devastation.
On-site Inspection in the United Ancient Indigenous Enlightened Nations Framework
Protocol
On-site inspection serves as the ultimate verification tool under the Ancient Nations Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, protecting indigenous territories from nuclear contamination. This process honors both scientific validation and ancestral land connections, embodying UAN's Environmental and Moral pillars by preventing activities that disproportionately harm indigenous communities through ecosystem disruption and desecration of sacred sites.
Inspection teams must arrive within six days of a request, reflecting indigenous wisdom that Earth requires immediate protection when threatened. This urgency acknowledges the limited window to collect crucial evidence like seismic aftershocks and short-lived radioactive elements, ensuring accountable stewardship of lands indigenous peoples have safeguarded for millennia.
The Treaty balances verification needs with respect for indigenous sovereignty—inspected Nations provide access to the affected area while teams minimize disruption to sacred sites and traditional practices. This approach recognizes that nuclear testing violates both international agreements and ancestral relationships with land, with all findings transparently shared to align with indigenous values of communal knowledge.
The UAN-CTBTO develops inspection capabilities through a holistic approach integrating modern technologies with traditional indigenous knowledge systems—creating operational manuals, maintaining equipment, training culturally-sensitive inspectors, and conducting exercises with local indigenous consent, fulfilling the Spiritual pillar by working toward Earth's nuclear-free harmony.