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High school and university educators strategize on ways to strengthen disarmament education in Nepal
On 19 and 20 January 2023, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD) convened a workshop for high school and university educators in Nepal on “Strengthening Education in Nepal for Disarmament”, in cooperation with the Youth Thinker’s Society , a civil society organization in Nepal, with financial support from the Republic of Korea. The purpose of this event was to assess the level of disarmament education currently being delivered to students in secondary and tertiary education in Nepal; to raise awareness on the meaning and importance…
UNLIREC strengthens the capacity of women in El Salvador to combat illicit arms trafficking
UNLIREC armoury management course (El Salvador, Nov. 2013) – On 25 November, coinciding with the celebrations of the UN International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNLIREC organized a National Inter-Institutional Course on Combating Illicit Firearms Trafficking targeted at women working in the area of small arms control in El Salvador . This ten-day course – conducted in San Salvador, El Salvador from 25 November to 6 December – brought together 40 female officers from law enforcement institutions, judiciary and the public prosecutor’s office. Access to technical…
UNLIREC and Trinidad and Tobago train Caribbean armourers on stockpile management of small arms and light weapons
UNLIREC armoury management course From 4-15 November 2013 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), in collaboration with the government of Trinidad and Tobago, steered an armoury management course at the Caribbean Regional Armoury Management Training Centre located at the Police Service (TTPS) Academy at the St James Barracks. This course is the second of its kind to be held in Trinidad and Tobago by UNLIREC, having recently inaugurated the training centre…
Prominent Lawyers Debate Whether Existing International Law Prohibits Nuclear Weapons
The First Committee Side Event on the legal status of nuclear weapons was organised by the Permanent Missions of New Zealand and Switzerland to the UN. The Permanent Missions of New Zealand and Switzerland to the United Nations sponsored a First Committee side event on the legal status of nuclear weapons at the UN’s New York Headquarters on October 18, featuring three prominent international lawyers. It was the contention of the panel that existing international law prohibits nuclear weapons implicitly. But an explicit convention against nuclear weapons should be pursued, Prof.…
First Committee Side Event Calls for Humanitarian Initiative to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons
The Permanent Missions of Indonesia and Switzerland to the UN sponsored a First Committee Side Event at the UN New York Headquarters on October 17 to discuss what one of the civil society representatives described as a “dance with many simultaneous steps”: moving towards the global abolition of all nuclear weapons. The NGO speakers agreed that as long as nuclear weapons exist, they might be used. “We must not forget that nuclear warheads are still weapons,” Thomas Nash from ICAN UK said. “Use is implicit in possession,” Greg Mello, representing the Los Alamos Study Group, insisted.…
UNLIREC assists Suriname to strengthen capacity in combatting illicit firearms trafficking
UNLIREC’s IITC course From 7 to 18 October 2013, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) – in close collaboration with the Ministry of Defense of Suriname – conducted a 10-day training course at the Ministry of Defense in Paramaribo on combatting illicit firearms trafficking for Surinamese security and justice sector officials. This inter-institutional course – the first of its kind carried out in Suriname – resulted in the training of 44 law enforcement officers including police, customs and…
Deflating the icon Illustrious panel talks dreadnoughts, chariots, strengthening nuclear nonproliferation
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs sponsored the panel event which featured Ward Wilson, Barry Blechman, and the UN’s High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane. Some States may seek nuclear weapons as icons of power. Hence, to strengthen efforts against their spread, States should deflate the symbolic value of nuclear weapons. A crucial step would be to de-emphasize their military significance. – Ward Wilson, Senior Fellow at the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), made this argument at a panel event held at the UN Headquarters in New York…
Cyber Threats: Information as a Weapon?
Recent UNIDIR publication entitled “The Cyber Index: International Security Trends and Realities” ILOVEYOU was a computer worm that started spreading in the Philippines and then attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers in 2000. This step back in history reminds us that information and communications technology (ICT) security threats have changed dramatically in just a decade. It is in this context that, on 9 October 2013, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) convened an informal meeting at the United Nations Headquarters entitled “Cyber…
Hope for a future world without nuclear weapons Twenty years ago, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine renounced their nuclear arsenals
Office for Disarmament Affairs Director Virginia Gamba represented Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the event. Two decades after having renounced their nuclear weapons arsenals, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine called upon the international community to redouble efforts towards eliminating all nuclear weapons. Abolishing all nuclear weapons is “the most ardent aspiration of mankind. … A nuclear free world is achievable,” Kazakhstan’s Barlybay Sardykov said at a First Committee Side Event held at UN Headquarters in New York on 10 October. The roundtable discussion, sponsored by the…
High Representative Kane receives delegation from the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo)
Representative Kane with delegation from Gensuikyo On Thursday, 10 October, High Representative Kane met with a delegation from Gensuikyo, also known as the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. The delegation was in New York at UN headquarters to speak to delegates of Member States on the margins of the General Assembly’s First Committee. Gensuikyo is one of Japan’s largest anti-nuclear and peace movement organizations. It was established in 1965 with a call for a total ban on nuclear weapons and support for radiation victims. The organization has been nominated for…