In April 1997, Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy/International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation released a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (MNWC). It drafted by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists, disarmament experts, physicians and activists.

The Model NWC prohibits the use, threat of use, possession, development, testing, deployment and transfer of nuclear weapons and provides a phased program for their elimination under effective international control. It provides for the verified elimination of nuclear weapons in much the same way comparable treaties have banned landmines and chemical and weapons. (There is also a ban on biological weapons, but there are as yet no verification provisions.)

The MNWC was drafted to demonstrate the feasibility of the elimination of nuclear weapons and thus stimulate negotiations to that end. Costa Rica submitted the MNWC to the UN later that year; it was circulated as UN Doc A/C.1/52/7.

In 2007, the same groups updated the MNWC along with the book explaining it, now entitled Securing Our Survival. In early December 2007, the governments of Costa Rica and Malaysia submitted the updated MNWC to the United Nations. As a result, it is now available in the six official UN languages:

Nuclear Weapons Convention - ARABIC

Nuclear Weapons Convention - CHINESE

Nuclear Weapons Convention - ENGLISH

Nuclear Weapons Convention - FRENCH

Nuclear Weapons Convention - GERMAN

Nuclear Weapons Convention - RUSSIAN

Nuclear Weapons Convention - SPANISH

The updated version takes into consideration key developments since 1997 relevant to the development and implementation of mechanisms for nuclear abolition. These include the overt acquisition of nuclear weapons by new countries (India, Pakistan and North Korea), the demonstrated black-market and non-state actor access to nuclear materials, the establishment of relevant criminal controls through UN Security Council resolution 1540, technological developments relevant to verification, and the establishment of new Nuclear Weapon Free Zones (Mongolia and Central Asia).

A UN General Assembly resolution calling for a NWC is "Follow-up on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of nuclear Weapons". It was adopted December 5, 2007. 127 countries voted yes, 27 abstained and 27 voted against (see vote record). It has been adopted on an annual basis since 1997.

Costa Rica also submitted to the 2007 NPT PrepCom a working paper explaining elements of the NWC.

In addition, in 2007 the Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book Securing Our Survival received specific high-level and cross-party support from around the world including from conservative former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser (Australia) and Jim Bolger (New Zealand); Nobel Peace Laureates including Mairead Macguire; United Nations officials including Sergio Duarte, UN High Representative on Disarmament; military leaders including Romeo Dallaire, former Commander of UN Forces in Rwanda; parliamentarians, and civil society leaders including Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima.

On July 1, 2008, a cross-party group of members of the European Parliament launched a Parliamentary declaration in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention. Signatories include Michel Rocard (former Prime Minister of France) and Jena Luc Dehaene (former Prime Minister of Belgium), both now members of the European Parliament. See report of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.