To comprehensively tackle the devastating impact of the illicit flow of small arms and light weapons on sustainable development, the President of the seventy-ninth session of the UN General Assembly, Philemon Yang, and the President of the UN Economic and Social Council, Bob Rae, in collaboration with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, will convene a meeting on Monday, 17 March, at UN Headquarters in New York.
The new political reality in Syria presents an opportunity to obtain long-overdue clarifications on the Syrian chemical weapons programme, rid the country of all such weapons and ensure long-term compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.
The Secretary-General will convene the two Cypriot leaders and the Guarantor Powers of Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom for an informal meeting in Geneva from 17 to 18 March, which will provide an opportunity for a meaningful discussion on the way forward on the Cyprus issue.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Awareness, observed on 5 March:
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Conference on Disarmament, in Geneva today:
The third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held at the United Nations Headquarters from 3 to 7 March.
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs is issuing a public call for candidates to serve on an independent Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War.
In Central and Southern Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that humanitarian partners had exhausted all supplies at their warehouses, at a time when Israeli authorities continue to deny most requests to bring food assistance from the Erez West crossing to areas south of Wadi Gaza.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been actively working towards acquiring new military capabilities that undermine the global non-proliferation architecture, a senior United Nations official warned the Security Council today, as its members condemned that country’s 6 January launch of a new-type intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile.
Meeting again today to discuss Western arms supplies to Ukraine, the Security Council heard that civilians there continue to be killed and injured by a panoply of deadly munitions, while the organ’s members alternately urged a diplomatic end to the violence and condemned Moscow’s initial — and continued — aggression.
