Disarmament

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.

Unblocking the long fallow Conference on Disarmament was the subject of a ministerial meeting convened today by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who urged delegations to recall that body’s status as the “undisputed home of international arms control efforts”, which even in the complex political and security context of the cold war had managed to conclude far-reaching and forward-looking treaties.

The Twenty-Second United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Saitama, Japan, from 25 to 27 August. Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Saitama, 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 Fourth Biennial Meeting of States to consider the implementation of the 2001 Programme of Action aimed at eradicating the illicit small arms trade today adopted by consensus its outcome document, as it concluded its week-long session. Sergio Duarte, United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, praised all delegates and organizers for a successful session and for reaching a consensus on the important outcome.

Weapons-tracing data was currently often scattered, unreliable and fragmented, hindering the effectiveness of the world’s attack on the illegal small arms trade, many delegates told the Fourth Biennial Meeting on combating the trade today, as States also began consideration of its final document by agreeing on the annex covering the international tracing instrument.

The easy availability of firearms multiplied the probability of death or grave violations of human rights in communities around the world and, as in warding off a disease, in preventing armed violence these communities must build up resistance and reduce their exposure to the vector of injury — the gun, delegates were told today, as the Fourth Biennial Meeting on combating the illicit small arms and light weapons trade reached the halfway mark of its week-long session.

Fine-tuning existing tools to stem the flow of the nefarious illicit arms trade topped a volley of suggestions that were the focus of debate today as the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons continued.

“The global scourge from the illicit trade in small arms and ammunition continues to wreak havoc” and was highly destabilizing, impacting upon security and development in literally all regions of the world, Sergio Duarte, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said today at the opening of the Fourth Biennial Meeting of States on combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.

A regional United Nations workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be held from 14 to 17 June in Split, Croatia.

After intense negotiations and, at times, heated controversy, States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) today concluded the 2010 Conference to review and advance the landmark 1968 accord with the unanimous adoption of an outcome document that contained steps to speed progress on nuclear disarmament, advance non-proliferation and work towards a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.