Disarmament

Concrete action towards the goal of complete nuclear disarmament, while guaranteeing the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, was urgently needed — both to ensure a safer world and to prove the value of the “struggling” Disarmament Commission, whose reputation had been tarnished by years of inaction, delegates said today, as they wrapped up the general debate of its 2011 substantive session.

Despite an eleven-year stalemate in the Disarmament Commission over ways to achieve nuclear disarmament and wide scepticism that confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms would also remain elusive, hope remained for achieving consensus on each item of that body’s painstakingly agreed agenda, said Sergio Duarte, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs as he opened the Commission’s 2011 substantive session.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, meeting ahead of its 2011 substantive session, slated to run from 4 to 22 April, today elected Hamid Al-Bayati of Iraq as Chair and decided to take up for the third consecutive year a three-pronged agenda on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, the fourth disarmament decade, and confidence-building in the field of conventional weapons.

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, and in cooperation with the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, is organizing a regional workshop entitled “Strengthening the Capacity of the Media in Advocating and Promoting Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific”. The workshop will take place in Beijing, China, on 20-21 January.

International, regional and subregional organizations will participate in a meeting on cooperation in promoting the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) at the Hofburg Congress Centre in Vienna, Austria, from 15 to 16 December.

Saudi Arabia will host a “Workshop on Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) concerning preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction” in Riyadh on 11-12 December.

The Inter Institutional Training Course on Combating Illicit Firearms Trafficking (IITC) of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-LiREC) has won recognition for “Best Practice” in the category of Regional Arms Control Initiatives.

The Ninth United Nations-Republic of Korea Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Issues will take place on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, from 2 to 3 December. The annual event is organized jointly by the Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific and the Government of the Republic of Korea.

The 2010 Disarmament Fellowship Programme will commence its third and final segment at United Nations Headquarters, today, in New York.

A regional United Nations workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be held from 28 September to 1 October 2010 in Hanoi, Viet Nam.