‘KA HOA TE RANGATAHI: A PACIFIC WAY TO DISARMAMENT’ TO CONVENE IN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, 27 - 30 MARCH

‘KA HOA TE RANGATAHI:  A PACIFIC WAY TO DISARMAMENT’ TO CONVENE

IN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, 27 - 30 MARCH

NEW YORK, 13 March (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- Representatives from government, academic and research institutes and non-governmental organizations, mainly from the South Pacific, will attend a first-time four-day regional disarmament meeting in the South Pacific in Wellington, New Zealand, from 27 to 30 March 2001.

The meeting – “Ka Hoa Te Rangatahi:  A Pacific Way to Disarmament” -- which will be opened by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, will examine security and disarmament concerns as they relate specifically to the region, such as the political and security environment at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the implementation and follow-up to the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and nuclear-weapon-free zones.

Participants will also address the issue of illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons.  The discussion is particularly apt as the South Pacific States prepare their contribution to the 2001 United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, 9 to 20 July this year in New York.  Finally, in cooperation with other United Nations bodies, a workshop will be held on strengthening disarmament related norms and existing conventions and regimes.

The convenor of the meeting is the Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific of the Department for Disarmament Affairs.  The regional meetings organized by the Centre over the last 13 years aim at encouraging regional and subregional dialogue to enhance openness, transparency and confidence-building and promote disarmament and security.  The dialogue facilitated by the meetings has become known as the “Kathmandu process” and helped to create a community of practitioners more open to region-wide thinking and acting in the field of disarmament and security.

The meeting will be entirely financed from voluntary contributions of Member States and interested organizations, with the Government of New Zealand bearing all domestic costs.

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