Meetings Coverage

A binding nuclear weapons convention, losing the outdated “deterrent” rationale for arsenals and mandating the total elimination of nuclear bombs were among the strong calls that rang through the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as non-governmental organizations addressed delegates at Headquarters today.

The Commission on Sustainable Development today began exploring a 10-year framework of programmes to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns, with speakers saying that change must begin in developed countries, where consumption was focused on luxury, whereas it was based on meeting basic needs in the developing world.

The General Assembly today marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describing the conflict as “one of the most epic struggles for freedom and liberation in history”, and adding that the devastating seven-year war had also led to the creation of the United Nations to foster peace, international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.

As long as the possession of nuclear weapons equalled power in the global “psyche”, the implications for the future of non-proliferation and disarmament would be profound, the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference heard today.

Strong efforts to advance the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East and define the contours of a legally binding international convention to eliminate nuclear weapons were urgently needed to prevent the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from being undermined, ministers and other officials warned the 2010 Review Conference as they continued into a third day of debate.

With Nepal’s Maoists blocking the streets of Kathmandu in the fifth day of their general strike, the top United Nations official in that country warned the Security Council about the implications of the opposition party’s face-off with the Government, saying that the peace process “is at a delicate and critical moment” and the protests threatened to derail the four-year effort to hammer out a power-sharing agreement.

Meeting in four parallel sessions today, delegates in the Commission on Sustainable Development sounded the alarm over consumption and production habits that could put the Millennium Development Goals at risk, as they continued their review of key issues worldwide.

Security Council members welcomed the European Union’s wide-ranging work with the United Nations on peace and security, as well as the potential for even stronger cooperation due to the new Lisbon Treaty arrangements, following a briefing by the first occupant of the Union’s consolidated security directorship.

Delegates to the eighteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development today heard two panels of experts address the topics of transport and chemicals in parallel afternoon meetings.

Renewed political will might have overcome stalemates in the disarmament arena, but fell far short of the unified force needed to rid the world of nuclear weapons, ministers told the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as it entered its second day at Headquarters today.