General Assembly Plans High-Level Meeting to Mark Third Annual International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 26 September

The third annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Tests will be observed on 26 September at United Nations Headquarters.  The 2016 observance will be marked by a one-day high-level plenary meeting to be convened by Peter Thomson (Fiji), President of the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, pursuant to resolution A/RES/70/34 entitled “follow-up to the 2013 high-level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament”.

By the terms of resolution A/RES/68/32, adopted in December 2013, the General Assembly declared 26 September the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, devoted to furthering that objective, including by enhancing public awareness and education about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination, in order to mobilize international efforts to achieve the common goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.  The resolution followed the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament, held in New York on 26 September 2013.

Beginning at 10 a.m., the plenary meeting to observe the International Day will be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber on 26 September.  Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will deliver a message from the Secretary-General.  A number of foreign ministers and other high-level officials will participate in the meeting, alongside representatives of civil society organizations.

The meeting will be open to all diplomats and members of think tanks, the academic community, civil society and the media.

For further information on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, please visit www.un.org/en/events/nuclearweaponelimination/, which is available in all six official United Nations languages.

For more information, please contact Donna Cusumano, United Nations Department of Public Information, at e-mail:  cusumanod@un.org; or Soo Hyun Kim, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, at e-mail:  kim12@un.org.