Lithuania to Host Workshop on Implementing Security Council

 

Resolution 1540 (2004), 5–6 June

 

NEW YORK, 4 June (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — A regional workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be hosted by the Government of Lithuania in Vilnius from 5 to 6 June.  Officials from countries bordering the Baltic Sea as well as representatives from a number of international, regional and subregional organizations have been invited to participate.  The workshop is organized by the Conflict Prevention Centre of the Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and with financial support from the Governments of Norway and the United States. 

Consistent with the objectives of resolution 1540 (2004), the workshop will focus on the main elements of prevention, detection and response to illicit trafficking of chemical, biological and nuclear materials and is tailored for policy-makers from relevant ministries, as well as border and customs officials from participating States.  The workshop is also expected to facilitate regional cooperation related to the resolution’s implementation.

Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1540 (2004) on 28 April 2004 obliging all States to refrain from providing any form of support to non-State actors that attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.  Under the resolution, all States are to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of these weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials.  Resolution 1540 (2004) established a Committee of the Security Council, as its subsidiary body, to report to the Council on the implementation of the resolution.  On 20 April 2011, the Security Council adopted resolution 1977 (2011), which extended the Committee’s mandate until 2021.

In October 2011, the United Nations and OSCE Secretariat signed a memorandum of understanding on joint implementation of projects on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  The memorandum aims at increasing technical cooperation in the implementation of resolution 1540 (2004).  Under the memorandum, capacity-building and assistance facilitation, regional and country-specific events have been and will continue to be organized in response to OSCE participating States’ requests.

For further information, please contact:  Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack, e-mail:  kraatz-wadsack@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record