In March 2012, Angela Kane of Germany was chosen by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to be High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, heading the office that promotes nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and supports disarmament regimes involving other weapons of mass destruction. It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, particularly small arms which are the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts. Ms. Kane has held a wide range of high positions in the United Nations during a long career in the Organization. Prior to assuming her current post, she was Under-Secretary-General for Management, following a term as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. She has also held leadership positions in peacekeeping and public information, and worked on disarmament issues earlier in her career in relation to the World Disarmament Campaign. The UN News Centre spoke to Ms. Kane at the end of 2013, a year in which the field of disarmament saw a great deal of activity.
As of 1 January, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has started receiving data from key International Monitoring System (IMS) stations hosted by China. CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo welcomed the step: "The Chinese stations’ data significantly enhances our system’s global coverage. And it is more than that: China has demonstrated its dedication to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and its verification regime. I encourage other countries with unresolved issues regarding our stations to follow China’s leadership."
Confidence-building is key to a genuine ceasefire in Myanmar's northern Kachin State, where more than 100,000 people are still displaced, experts and analysts say. "There is a total lack of trust within the Kachin community," says Nyo Ohn Myint, a member of the Myanmar Peace Committee (MPC), attributing much of this to the history of a previous ceasefire, signed in 1994 by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political arm of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has been fighting for greater autonomy from the central government since Burma, now Myanmar, gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.
KUCHING: Malaysia repeats its stand in support of efforts to prevent the illegal trade of conventional weapons that cause international conflict and extremist activities. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nancy Shukri, who participated in the 35th Parliament Annual Forum for Parliament and members of Parliament for Parliament for Global Action (PGA) in Bogota, Colombia, said Malaysia’s firm stand on the issue had gained supports from Board Members of Parliament and Members of Parliament for Global Action.
Bhutan has become the latest state to declare that it has cleared all known anti-personnel mines in areas under its jurisdiction or control as required by the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention, which bans the use, stockpile, production and transfer of these weapons. Bhutan did so over two years before its February 2016 deadline. The announcement was made by the Bhutanese delegation at the Convention’s Thirteenth Meeting of the States Parties, which is taking place this week in Geneva. “It is therefore my privilege and honour to inform this gathering that in accordance with Article 5 of the Convention, Bhutan has cleared all the anti-personnel mines that were laid in its territory,” said the head of the Bhutanese delegation.
Everything must be done to 'prevent chemical genie from coming back out of its bottle', Secretary-General says in message to States Parties' Conference
The annual Meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-Personal Mine Ban Convention – also known as the Ottawa Convention – takes place for the 13th time in Geneva from 2-5 December 2013 (13MSP). With the accession of Poland to the Convention in June 2013, it is the first Meeting for the European Union, where all its 28 Member States are States Parties. Furthermore, the Meeting is of particular importance as it is the last opportunity for a collective assessment of common efforts and remaining challenges before the Convention’s Third Review Conference taking place in Maputo, Mozambique, in June 2014. Ahead of the Convention’s Review Conference next year, the States Parties will assess during the week of the annual Meeting the implementation of the Cartagena Action Plan 2010-2014, which was adopted in at the 2009. This assessment of challenges and work that remains to be done will be recorded at the 13MSP’s Geneva Progress Report. Furthermore, the 13MSP will consider requests for extensions on mine clearance deadlines, assess the “general status and operation of the Convention” and discuss how to enhance international cooperation and assistance and to increase resource mobilization.
The Second Asian Regional Meeting to Facilitate Dialogue on the Arms Trade Treaty, will take place in Manila, Philippines, from 26 to 27 November 2013. This event is organized jointly by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, and the Government of the Philippines. Over 50 senior level representatives from Governments, regional organizations in Asia and from the United Nations will participate in the meeting. The meeting will focus on facilitating dialogue in Asia on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), including on its ratification and implementation. This landmark treaty, regulating the international trade in conventional arms, was opened for signature at the United Nations on 3 June 2013. Globally, 114 States have signed the ATT while 8 States have ratified the Treaty.
Today is an opportunity for each person to recommit to ending the harm being committed against one out of three women, senior United Nations officials said marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. “Violence against women and girls directly affects individuals while harming our common humanity,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, which this year focuses on the theme of raising awareness by wearing the colour orange. Mr. Ban applauded leaders who are helping to enact and enforce laws and change mindsets, and paid tribute to the heroes who help victims heal and become agents of change. Among those, Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who the UN chief met last month, and who in turn, is inspired by the courage of the women he treats.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated the people of Nepal for the peaceful and successful conduct of yesterday’s elections for members of the Constituent Assembly, which is tasked with drafting the country’s new constitution. “The new Constituent Assembly will have the historic responsibility to complete a new constitution, building upon the impressive gains in the peace process so far, and thereby promoting national dialogue and genuine reconciliation,” said a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson. “The United Nations remains committed to supporting Nepal in its transition towards a peaceful, democratic and prosperous future.”
Eighteen of Myanmar's ethnic armed groups recently gathered in the rebel-controlled Kachin capital of Laiza to draft guidelines for government negotiations, and to strengthen their collective position on what would become the country’s first national ceasefire agreement.
A senior United Nations official today appealed to the international community to provide funding to the UN-backed tribunal trying Khmer Rouge leaders accused of mass killings in Cambodia, which is experiencing financial difficulties preventing it from completing its work. “We all agree that there can be no impunity for crimes which tear at the very fabric of our common humanity. But we have to do more than agree – and more than speak out. We have to match our words with actions,” the Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, said at the pledging conference in New York for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).
A United Nations envoy today commended the parties to the Kachin peace talks, calling their meeting this week “a significant move forward” in Myanmar’s national reconciliation process. Following an agreement in October between the Kachin Independence Organization and the Myanmar Government, a dialogue was held on 4 and 5 November between the Government and Ethnic Armed Groups in Myitkyina, the capital city of Kachin state. “The meeting in Myitkyina was the first meeting between the combined Ethnic Armed Organizations and the Government in decades and as such represents a significant move forward in the national reconciliation process,” said Vijay Nambiar, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Myanmar, who participated as observer in the talks.
Daniel Prins, UNODA Conventional Arms Branch Chief, discusses the Arms Trade Treaty with Bill Miller on UNTV's Global Connections. [source: UNTV Global Connections]
Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to humanity, and must never be used again, under any circumstances. We therefore welcome the recent shift in the international discourse about nuclear weapons towards the recognition by a number of States that the catastrophic and irremediable consequences of the use of nuclear weapons require decisive action to outlaw and eliminate them.
Two of the surviving former leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime charged with mass killings during the 1970’s requested to be acquitted today, as closing arguments began at the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in the south-east Asian country. Nuon Chea, 87, and Khieu Samphan, 81, are before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), on charges of crimes against humanity for their roles in the regime which ruled from 1975-1979. Nearly 2 million people are thought to have died during that period of forced labour, starvation, torture and execution. The ECCC is a hybrid court established in 2006 to try senior leaders and those most responsible for the crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The UN has deployed international judges, prosecutors and staff to the ECCC through the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials.
Expressing concern about the potential for illegal use of armed unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, two United Nations human rights experts today called on States to be transparent in their use, to investigate allegations of unlawful killings and to respect the full range of applicable international law. “Drones are not inherently illegal weapons,” Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, acknowledged at a panel that discussed his new report as well as that of Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Marking the 68th birthday of the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the annual celebration offers a chance to recognize the invaluable contributions of the Organization to peace and common progress. “It is a time to reflect on what more we can do to realize our vision for a better world,” Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, observed on 24 October, the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. It was with the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, that the UN officially came into being. Mr. Ban said that this year again, the world witnessed the UN coming together on armed conflict, human rights, the environment and many other issues.
The “Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Treaty of Tlatelolco) was today proclaimed winner of the 2013 Future Policy Award for sustainable disarmament, beating 24 other nominated policies to the prize. The award will be presented at a ceremony this evening at United Nations Headquarters by the World Future Council, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Silver awards were granted to Argentina’s “National Programme for the Voluntary Surrender of Firearms” and New Zealand’s “Nuclear-Free Zone, Arms Control, and Disarmament Act” while four additional disarmament policies from Belgium, Costa Rica, Mongolia and Mozambique/South Africa were recognized as Honourable Mentions.
