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European Union adopts 2.3 million Euro voluntary contribution in support of the Biological Weapons Convention
Participants at workshop in support of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, funded by the European Union, and implemented by the of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs In January 2016 the Council of the European Union adopted “Council Decision (CFSP) 2016/51 in support of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in the framework of the EU Strategy against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”. The Decision provides for a voluntary contribution of EUR 2,340,000 which will be administered by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs over the…
High Level Roundtable on Partnerships for Silencing the Guns in Africa
On 25 January 2016, UNREC (ODA), UNOCHA, and the African Union convened a High Level Panel on the “Silencing the Guns in 2020”; a side event on the margins of the Summit of Heads of State of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The participants included representatives of the AU Peace and Security, Political and Social Affairs Departments, the AU Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security Mme Bineta Diop, as well as the ICRC, IOM, UNOAU, UNESCO, UNHCR and UN Women. Representatives of several African Member States, including South Africa, Gabon, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, and other…
Hibakusha Meets UN Tour Guides and Interns
On 18 December 2015, Mr. Yasuaki Yamashita, a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) from Nagasaki who now lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, met with UN Tour Guides and also with UN interns in New York to share his testimony of the horrors of the nuclear bombing he experienced seventy years ago on 9 August in 1945. The event was opened by the Acting High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Mr. KIM Won-soo, who remarked that the testimonies by the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki form an historical legacy for promoting peace and for securing a world free of nuclear…
Workshop on Building Capacity in SALW Control through the United Nations Programme of Action
25-26 November 2015Manila, the Philippines More than 40 experts and participants from the Philippine Police, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Special Envoy on Transnational Crimes met on 25-26 November 2015 in Manila, the Philippines, to learn more about and discuss the implementation requirements for the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA SALW) and in this context to share and recommend best practices. This workshop was…
CCW Meeting Takes Forward Mandate on Laws and Paves the Way for 2016 Fifth Review Conference
In Geneva, on 13 November 2015, States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons(CCW)1 completed a week of conferences, where one of the key issues before States Parties was Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), which has been the subject of intense discussion over the past two years within the CCW. The Meeting was chaired by Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha of Sri Lanka. In welcoming the decision on the 2016 mandate on LAWS, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said “LAWS if developed could be a major game changer in how armed conflicts are…
Educating Teachers about Nuclear Disarmament at the United Nations
As part of its ongoing efforts on disarmament education, UNODA organizes an annual workshop for New York City Public School teachers on nuclear disarmament. On 3 November 2015, the fourth such workshop was held, in collaboration with Hibakusha Stories and Youth Arts New York. Thirty teachers took part that day, as New York teachers have a day for continuing professional education efforts (while their schools are turned into polling stations for local elections). The goal of the day was to instruct teachers on nuclear disarmament, and inform them about the…
First Committee Side Event: End-Use/r Controls Workshop by UNIDIR
On Tuesday 28 October the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) hosted a workshop on end-use/r controls, called “Initiating a global dialogue on strengthening end use/r control systems: Can harmonization help tackle arms diversion?”. UNIDIR is conducting an ongoing research project on the possibilities for harmonizing end-use/r control systems, as there are significant differences in these systems around the world. This workshop, held as a side event of the ongoing First Committee, provided an opportunity for UNIDIR to update Member States on its progress…
Side-event on UNIDIR development of the International Small Arms and Ammunition Guidance Platform (ISAP)
To accompany the start of the thematic debate on conventional weapons in the First Committee, the Permanent Missions of Germany and Switzerland to the UN, in cooperation with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), hosted a side event on Monday 26 October 2015. It was titled “Applying Small Arms and Ammunition Control Guidelines in Conflict Affected Areas: Lessons learned and Proposed Tools for Solutions.” There are substantial challenges to the application of global small arms and ammunition guidelines, as there are often significant resource…
Discussing Drones at the UN Headquarters
Michael Spies, Alexandra Hiniker, Maritza Chan, Amrit Singh, Hina Shamsi and Wim Zwijnenburg. The First Committee of the UN General Assembly saw its very first side event on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or drones, on Friday 23 October 2015. The Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations and PAX hosted a debate on “Discussing Drones: Engaging the international community on unmanned systems.” The session was moderated by Alexandra Hiniker, PAX’s Representative to the United Nations in New York. The event combined legal, ethical and political perspectives on the use and…
UNLIREC Provided Assistance on Firearms Forensic Ballistics to Belize
Participants engaging in discussions on serial number restoration methods From 19 to 24 October 2015, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) carried out, in collaboration with the Government of Belize, a three-day training course on standard operating procedures awareness and an update of the technical assessment of national capabilities and infrastructure for firearms forensic ballistics. The cooperation was launched with a seminar for prosecutors, magistrates, and other institutional representatives…