UNITED NATIONS DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE In NIIGATA, JAPAN, 26-28 AUGUST, TO consider

 

ways to translate vision of NUCLEAR WEAPON-FREE WORLD into concrete actions

 

NEW YORK, 24 August (Office for Disarmament Affairs) ‑‑ The twenty-first United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Niigata, Japan, from 26 to 28 August.  Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Niigata, the Conference is organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific.

Hannelore Hoppe, Director and Deputy to the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairsand Akira Shinoda, Mayor of the host city, will open the Conference.  Senior officials from the Government of Japan, Niigata Perfecture and Nagasaki City will also address the participants at the opening session.  Kanat B. Saudabayev, Secretary of State of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will deliver the keynote speech.  Approximately 60 participants from Governments, academia and think tanks, international and non-governmental organizations, and the media will attend the Conference.  The Conference is open to the public as a way to raise awareness of, and support for, disarmament and non-proliferation.

The Conference will address ways and means to translate visions of a nuclear-weapon-free world into concrete actions.  Strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime with a focus on the forthcoming 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is also high on the Conference’s agenda.  Regional security issues in relation to nuclear proliferation will also be discussed.  Furthermore, the Conference will address challenges in the field of conventional weapons, and peace and disarmament education, as well as the important role of civil society in addressing these challenges.

This annual conference, which has been hosted by Japan since 1989, is recognized as an important forum for frank dialogue and exchange of views on pressing security and disarmament-related issues facing the international community.  It also addresses the particular disarmament and non-proliferation concerns of countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Conference is financed from voluntary contributions made to the Office for Disarmament Affairs by the Government of Japan.

For further information, please contact Taijiro Kimura, Director, United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, tel.:  977 1 5010257; fax:  977 1 5010223; e-mail:  info@unrcpd.org.np.

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For information media • not an official record