2001 UNITED NATIONS DISARMAMENT YEARBOOK RELEASED

The 2001 United Nations Disarmament Yearbook was released yesterday and a copy was presented to the Secretary-General by Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs.  The Yearbook describes developments in the field of disarmament in the United Nations during the year 2001.  The contents include:

-- Steps taken by Member States and the United Nations to confront the threat of the possible use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorist groups in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks; efforts made to strengthen multilateral disarmament legal norms with regard to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons;

-- Outcome of the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects and other actions taken by the international community to combat the dangerous proliferation of small arms and light weapons;

-- The different approaches to nuclear disarmament, prevention of an arms race in outer space and other issues taken by Member States that prevented substantive progress in the Conference on Disarmament during the year;

-- International efforts to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) suffered setbacks at the Fifth Review Conference of BWC and in the Ad Hoc Group to negotiate a compliance protocol to the BWC; and

-- Action taken on the impact of weapons of mass destruction and other  types of weapons on human rights and human security in the Subcommittee of the Commission on Human Rights as a result of the increased attention by Member States and the United Nations to the inherent linkage between disarmament and the protection of human rights and human security.

The Disarmament Yearbookfocuses on the actions and reactions of the world community to a wide range of disarmament issues.  It surveys regional developments in disarmament and confidence-building.

The United Nations Disarmament Yearbook is designed as a handy reference work for diplomats, researchers and the interested public.  It comprises a succinct account of the above-mentioned subjects and others, a brief account of explanations of the voting in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), an index and extensive appendices.  The appendices provide data on the

status of multilateral and regional disarmament agreements and the final products of disarmament conferences relating to multilateral disarmament instruments.  They also contain the full texts of all United Nations General Assembly resolutions and decisions on disarmament, list their sponsors and indicate the overall voting results and the positions of each Member State on each resolution.

Concluding his foreword to the publication, Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala writes:  “The pursuit of security through the endless perfection and accumulation of arms is clearly counter-productive -- and in the early part of the new century, the world must achieve what Article 26 of the Charter describes as ‘the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources’.”

For further information, contact:  Xiaoyu Wang, Coordinator for Disarmament Yearbook, Department of Disarmament Affairs; tel. (212) 963-9440;

Fax: (212) 963-1121; e-mail address: wangxy@un.org.

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