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.

A United Nations workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be held from 8 to 10 September 2009 in San José, Costa Rica.

Small arms experts from West African nations gathered in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, from 14 to 18 September to participate in a capacity-building workshop focusing on implementation of the International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Highlighting the importance of verification in “giving teeth” to disarmament and non-proliferation agreements, speakers today praised the effectiveness demonstrated by the nuclear test-ban Treaty’s International Monitoring System (IMS), as they concluded their conference aimed at promoting the Treaty’s entry into force.

A special event entitled “Resolution 1540: At the Crossroads” will be held at United Nations Headquarters on 1 October. Sponsored by the Office for Disarmament Affairs, the event is organized in connection with the comprehensive review of the status of implementation of resolution 1540 (2004).

The third segment of the 2009 Disarmament Fellowship Programme starts today at United Nations Headquarters, for a period of three and a half weeks, with the participation of young diplomats from 24 Member States.

Although the Disarmament Commission had not been able to agree on elements of a draft declaration of the 2010s as the fourth disarmament decade -- the Commission’s main task this year -- a good basis for next year’s deliberations had been achieved, Commission Chairman Andrzej Towpik ( Poland) told delegates today at the closing of its 2009 substantive session.

The Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held its third session from 4 to 15 May at United Nations Headquarters in New York. This was the last of three sessions of the Preparatory Committee that will be held prior to the 2010 Review Conference.

A training course for experts available to the United Nations Secretary-General for investigations of the alleged use of chemical, biological and toxin weapons will be held in Umeå, Sweden, from 25 May to 5 June.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched the “WMD-WeMustDisarm” multiplatform campaign, beginning the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace. The Day, commemorated annually on 21 September, this year focuses on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.