Disarmament

The first ever international treaty to regulate the trade of conventional weapons “opened a door of hope” to millions of people living in deprivation and fear because of the poorly controlled trade and the proliferation of those deadly weapons, the United Nations top official said today as the instrument opened for signature, with more than 60 delegates lining up to pen their names.

NEW YORK, 19 April (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The Government of Trinidad and Tobago, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, invited the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004) and its Group of Experts to undertake a visit to the country from 17 to 19 April.

A frank and open exchange of views during the Disarmament Commission’s three-week session had helped to rebuild trust between delegations and set the stage to bridge longstanding differences of position and bring much-needed legitimacy to the United Nations disarmament machinery, speakers said today, as the body’s 2013 session drew to a close.

NEW YORK, 8 April (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The 2013 Group of Governmental Experts on the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, established by the Secretary-General under General Assembly resolution 66/39, commenced its work in Geneva on Monday, 8 April, to review the Register’s continuing operation and further development.

The Disarmament Commission was a unique forum where delegates could “think and debate” and — after years of stalemate — there was now a need to build on positive momentum and find convergence on critical issues, speakers said today as they wrapped up the general debate of their substantive session and moved into focused working groups to tackle the most pressing items on their agenda.

In a “very complex” security environment — marked by diplomatic divisions between national and international interests, slow progress on nuclear disarmament, and the “relentless” expansion of military budgets — the Disarmament Commission’s record would be judged less by the volume of its words than the quality of its outcomes, said Angela Kane, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, as she opened the deliberative body’s 2013 substantive session.

After two weeks of closed-door consultations, a sweeping arms trade treaty text setting out principles and rules to regulate the staggering array of weapons that changes hands each year failed to achieve consensus tonight, but several delegations, not willing to return to their countries “empty-handed”, promised to move the draft treaty to the General Assembly for adoption as early as next week.

With a multi-billion-dollar trade in conventional weapons still threatening the lives of millions of civilians around the world, the time had come for States to overcome past setbacks and deliver on a robust, legally binding arms trade treaty, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a packed room at Headquarters as the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty kicked off this morning.

The United Nations Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty opens Monday, 18 March, at United Nations Headquarters in New York amid broad expectations of finally arriving at a successful outcome, which had eluded the Arms Trade Treaty Conference in July 2012.

NEW YORK, 5 March (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa is holding an “African Seminar to Prepare for the Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty”, in partnership with the International Action Network on Small Arms.