Disarmament

To halt all nuclear testing, the international community must aim to launch the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2012 through political will and concrete action, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged today at the seventh so-called “Article XIV” Conference to facilitate the instrument’s operation.

The twenty-third United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Matsumoto, Japan, from 27 to 29 July. Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Matsumoto, 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.

The Disarmament Commission had failed to capitalize on the momentum created by a host of achievements in the disarmament field of during 2010, Hamid al-Bayati (Iraq), its Chairman, said today as the body concluded its twelfth consecutive fruitless substantive session.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission elected Liseth Ancidey of Venezuela this morning as Chair of its Working Group 3. The election followed consultations within the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States.

In a brief organizational meeting today, the United Nations Disarmament Commission elected Knut Langeland (Norway) as Chair of its Working Group I, dedicated to “recommendations for achieving the objective of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons”.

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.