Office for Disarmament Affairs to Host Workshop for Portuguese-Speaking States

on Implementing Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004), in Togo, 5-6 June

 

NEW YORK, 4 June (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa will convene a workshop on 5 and 6 June in Lomé, Togo, to assist Portuguese-speaking States in preparing their initial reports pursuant to Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by non-State actors.

The workshop will assemble representatives from Africa ( Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe) and beyond ( Brazil and Timor-Leste).  Participating States will benefit from the expertise of the 1540 Committee’s experts.  Angola and Brazil, which submitted their first reports in October 2004, also agreed to share their experience with the invited States.

The event in Lomé concludes a series of three workshops on the subject of initial reporting organized by the Office for Disarmament Affairs in 2014.  The two previous for French- and English-speaking States were held in Gabon and South Africa, respectively, earlier this year.

The Chairman of the 1540 Committee, Ambassador Oh Joon (Republic of Korea), has underscored the need to continue efforts to achieve universal reporting in 2014, the year of the tenth anniversary of resolution 1540 (2004).  Currently, 21 States — 17 of which are in Africa — have yet to submit a first national report describing the steps that they have taken towards the resolution’s implementation.

By its resolution 1540 unanimously adopted on 28 April 2004 — under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter — the Security Council obliged all States to refrain from providing any form of support to non-State actors attempting to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.  The resolution also requires all States to adopt and enforce effective laws to prohibit the proliferation of such weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means by non-State actors and to establish domestic controls to prevent their proliferation.

In 2011, the Security Council adopted resolution 1977, which calls upon all States that have not yet presented a first report on steps they have taken or intend to take to implement resolution 1540 (2004) to submit one to the 1540 Committee.

For further information, contact the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), tel.:  +228 22 53 50 00; e-mail:  mail@unrec.org; web:  www.unrec.org.

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For information media • not an official record