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Building the global norm against biological weapons: the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
From 24 to 28 February 2025, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) Geneva Branch and the Implementation Support Unit (ISU) of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) hosted a commemorative exhibition at the Palais des Nations. Marking the centenary of the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the fiftieth anniversary of the entry into force of the BWC, the exhibition highlighted the efforts of multiple stakeholders to build the global norm against the use of biological weapons and emphasized the continued relevance of these two milestone agreements in maintaining global…
Sustaining the fight against the illicit proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in The Gambia
A delegation of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) travelled to Banjul from 27 to 31 January. The main objective of their Mission was threefold: i) assess the institutional capacities of the recently established National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW); ii) support for the development of a national action plan on SALW; and iii) foster stronger collaboration among national stakeholders and with the United Nations Country Team. The mission took place in the context of the implementation of the EU funded project, entitled “United…
Parliamentarians from African States not party to the Biological Weapons Convention gather in support of universalisation
On 10 and 11 February, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) welcomed parliamentary delegations from Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and Somalia, five of the six African States not yet party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), to Geneva for a high-level seminar in support of universalisation. The seminar focussed on raising awareness about the importance of BWC universalisation and sought to encourage broad regional and international cooperation to that end. Delegates with His Excellency Ambassador Frederico S. Duque…
Call for Papers: The impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the sustainable development goals
In the Pact for the Future, adopted by the General Assembly in September 2024, Member States voiced their concern about the potential impact that the global increase in military expenditures could have on investments in sustainable development and sustaining peace. To that end, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to “provide analysis on the impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of the seventy-ninth session”. With the aim of encouraging engagement and reflection on this subject by Member…
Mauritania strengthens national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention
From 13 to 14 January 2025 in Nouakchott, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Radiation Protection, Nuclear Safety and Security Authority (ARSN) of Mauritania jointly organized a national workshop on strengthening the implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). This was the first workshop of its kind in Mauritania since it joined the BWC in 2015. Mauritania has made significant progress towards BWC implementation prior to the event including the nomination a BWC National Contact Point (NCP) in 2023 and the submission of its first…
African Amnesty Month: Djibouti launches activities to ‘Silence the Guns’
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) took part in the launch of the African Amnesty Month (AAM) in Djibouti from 29th to 31st October, along with the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), which also represented the African Union. During the three-day mission, several activities were held to raise awareness about the fight against the illicit trade and use of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). These included planting trees at Camp Lemonnier;a march from Camp Lemonnier to the National police shooting range; the…
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.…