The Work Plan, which serves as guidance for international action, including through cooperation within the context of relevant international fora and organizations, calls for specific steps that include:
- Cooperating through the United Nations to implement and assist others in connection with Security Council resolutions;
- Working with the International Atomic Energy Agency to update and implement security guidance and carry out advisory services;
- Reviewing national regulatory and legal requirements relating to nuclear security and nuclear trafficking;
- Converting civilian facilities that use highly enriched uranium to non-weapons-usable materials; and
- Education and training to ensure that countries and facilities have the people they need to protect their materials.
In preparation for the next Nuclear Security Summit, which is planned for the Republic of Korea in 2012, Sherpas representing the countries that participated in the Washington Summit will continue to hold a series of meetings to evaluate progress in carrying out Summit objectives and help prepare leaders for the 2012 Summit in Seoul. The first of these Sherpa meetings took place in November 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The need for nations to work cooperatively in all the areas of the multi-dimensional aspects of nuclear security was highlighted in several similar statements in the communiqué and work plan. One of the relevant international legal obligations that are a part of this multi-dimensional approach to securing nuclear material is United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1540.
In April 2004, the United Nations Security Council adopted Security Council Resolution1540, establishing for the first time binding obligations on all U.N. member states under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, to take and enforce effective measures against the proliferation of WMD, their means of delivery and related materials. The resolution recognizes the need to “enhance coordination of efforts on national, subregional, regional and international levels.”
UNSCR 1540, if fully implemented, can help ensure that no State or non-State actor is a source or beneficiary of WMD proliferation. All states have three primary obligations regarding WMD under UNSCR 1540: to prohibit support to non-State actors seeking such items; to adopt and enforce effective laws prohibiting the proliferation of such items to non-State actors, and prohibiting assisting or financing such proliferation; and to take and enforce effective measures to control these items, in order to prevent their proliferation, as well as to control the provision of funds and services that contribute to proliferation.
Many governments and non-governmental organizations are actively working bilaterally to address successful implementation of the resolution. As a Chapter VII resolution, it has become an important baseline for reference with broader nuclear non-proliferation and counter-proliferation work.