Disarmament

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says 71 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar, with more than half of them still detained since the beginning of February.  Some 24 people have been charged for allegedly spreading fake news.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the Security Council’s open debate on mine action today:

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today that, due to significant funding gaps, it is cutting food rations for refugees and internally displaced people in South Sudan.  The cuts will affect nearly 700,000 of them and they will now receive 50 per cent of a full ration, down from 70 per cent.

Expressing deep concern over the high number of civilian casualties caused by landmines, explosive war remnants and improvised explosive devices, the Security Council today reiterated its call on belligerents to “immediately and definitively” end the indiscriminate use of such weapons, as senior Government officials debated ways to rid the world of a pernicious legacy.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, observed on 4 April:

The Chair of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004), which supports States in preventing non-State actors — including terrorists — from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction, provided a briefing to the Security Council during a videoconference meeting today, describing the successful completion of the body’s ongoing comprehensive review process as its top priority.

The global economy is set to grow by 4.7 per cent in 2021, faster than the 4.3 per cent predicted in September, says a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report released today.  It sees a misguided return to austerity, after a destructive recession, as the main risk to the global outlook. 

At least 14 civilians were killed in an attack by suspected combatants of the ADF on Sunday night in Bulongo village, east of Beni, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported.  The Mission’s Force Intervention Brigade deployed to the area yesterday.

Nearly eight years after the Security Council first mandated the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, the senior United Nations disarmament official today described only limited progress towards declaring that dossier closed, as delegates continued to voice divergent views about the neutrality of the global non-proliferation architecture itself.

The period following the start of Afghanistan’s peace negotiations in September 2020 has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of human rights defenders and media professionals killed in the country, a new report issued today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says.