LCNP and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, in association with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation, released a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (MNWC) drafted by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists, disarmament experts, physicians and activists.

The Model NWC (April, 1997) 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: Securing Our Survival.

In early December 2007, the governments of Costa Rica and Malaysia submitted an updated MNWC to the United Nations:

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 considersd 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).

The consequent UN General Assembly resolution calling for a NWC:
Follow-up on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of nuclear Weapons

Adopted on December 5, 2007, 127 countries voted in favor (with 27 abstentions & 27 against): vote record. It has been adopted annually since 1997.

Costa Rica also submitted to the 2007 NPT PrepCom: Working paper submitted by Costa Rica, 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.

Report of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.