Disarmament

On 21 and 22 May, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, is holding the African Regional Consultations on the Arms Trade Treaty at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting is organized jointly with the International Action Network on Small Arms, in cooperation with the African Union Commission, and is made possible with the financial support of the Government of Australia.

NEW YORK, 18 May (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — In May, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, provided a set of small arms destruction equipment to the Bahamas and trained national officers on the use of the equipment.

While the Disarmament Commission had achieved the minimum necessary to consider its 2012 session a “relative success”, Chairman Enrique Román-Morey challenged delegates to also ask why — despite huge personal efforts and displays of flexibility — they had failed to achieve the consensus needed to allow them to prepare the ground for discussion of key disarmament matters elsewhere, in negotiating forums.

The Disarmament Commission met briefly this morning and completed the Bureau for its 2012 session with the election of two Vice-Chairs and a Rapporteur.

On 16 April, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, launched a training course to combat illicit firearms trafficking for security sector officers of Member States of the Caribbean region. The 10-day course is scheduled to run until 27 April, in Port of Spain, with the support of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Global Day of Action on Military Spending was launched by an international network led by the International Peace Bureau on 12 April 2011 to highlight the large global military spending. The United Nations, since its inception, has been concerned about the question, and to mark the occasion of the Global Day this year, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, issued a statement expressing her support and that of the United Nations for the observance.

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs is announcing the launch of the redesigned website of the 1540 Committee, http://www.un.org/en/sc/1540. The work has been carried out in cooperation with the Department of Public Information.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission reached an agreement on a provisional agenda for the work of its 2012 substantive session today, ending a three-day-long stalemate that some feared would jeopardize the body’s ability to continue its work.

Despite the inability of the Disarmament Commission by the close of day three of its session today to adopt a substantive agenda, it continued its general debate along with informal rounds of talks aimed at framing its item on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in language satisfactory to all.