disarmament

File photo of UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu (centre) meeting young people in Japan at an event focused on the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the establishment of the UN.
UN Office for Disarmament Affairs

Youth must be included in disarmament and non-proliferation

12 August 2021
Peace and Security

With 40 per cent of the global population under 25, the international community has a special responsibility to ensure young people can share their perspectives and concerns about existential threats to current and future generations, UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu said on Thursday.

The Hypocenter Monument at Nagasaki Peace Park, Japan.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN pledges full support to Nagasaki voices fuelling ‘powerful global movement’ against nuclear arms

8 August 2021
Peace and Security

António Guterres has reaffirmed the full support of the United Nations to amplifying the powerful testimony of the survivors of the atomic bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, 76 years ago, which has helped build a “powerful global movement against nuclear arms”.

A street in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Syria. The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe chlorine gas had been used in a chemical weapons attack in April 2018.
UNICEF/Amer Al Shami

Given gaps, inconsistencies, Syria’s declarations on chemical weapons programme not considered ‘accurate and complete’

11 December 2020
Peace and Security

Outstanding issues related to Syria’s initial declaration of its chemical weapons stockpile and programme cannot be considered “accurate and complete”, the head of the world body monitoring States’ implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention told the Security Council on Friday.

Landmines are cleared in Lebanon.
MAG Lebanon

Alert over growing use of cluster munitions, despite stockpile reductions

25 November 2020
Peace and Security

Lethal cluster munitions are still being used in old and new conflicts around the world, from Syria to Libya, to Nagorno-Karabakh, a UN-backed civil society report said on Wednesday.

In a camp in northern Syria, a young girl wears a mask to protect her from COVID-19.
© UNICEF/Omar Albam

Syria: No justification for chemical weapon use ‘under any circumstances’ – UN disarmament chief

5 November 2020
Peace and Security

The top UN disarmament official on Thursday briefed the Security Council on progress made by Syria towards eliminating its chemicals weapons programme, complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, briefs Security Council members on Non-proliferation and supporting the Non-proliferation Treaty ahead of the 2020 Review Conference.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

UN disarmament chief hopes upcoming conference will address current nuclear challenges

26 February 2020
Peace and Security

With division and distrust rife among countries that possess nuclear arsenals, the UN disarmament chief is hopeful that the issue will be addressed during an upcoming conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Former child soldiers are released in Yambio in South Sudan in 2018.
UNMISS/Isaac Billy

UN updates guidelines to ensure successful return to civilian life for former combatants

19 November 2019
Peace and Security

Increasing hurdles which prevent former combatants from returning to a peaceful civilian life have prompted the UN to update its standard practices, in an effort to ensure they remain “fit-for-purpose for years to come”.

Craters and boreholes dot the former Soviet Union nuclear test site Semipalatinsk in what is today Kazakhstan. (File)
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

Nuclear testing has ‘disastrous consequences’ for people and planet, General Assembly told

9 September 2019
Peace and Security

Events commemorating the recent International Day against Nuclear Tests serve as an “important and stark reminder…of the disastrous consequences of nuclear testing on human health and the environment”, a top UN official told the General Assembly on Monday.

A view of the sculpture - Good Defeats Evil - on the UN Headquarters grounds, presented to the UN by the Soviet Union on the occasion of the Organization’s 45th anniversary.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UN chief laments ending of Cold War-era disarmament treaty

2 August 2019
Peace and Security

Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his “deep regret” on Friday that the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and Russia came to an end. 

The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs receives a symbolic gift to the UN from IM Swedish Development Partner. The wrist watch is made of metal stemming from seized illegal fire-arms in El Salvador.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN receives ‘Humanium’ wristwatch gift, symbolizing peaceful transformation

13 November 2018
Peace and Security

On Friday, the United Nations disarmament chief was presented with a watch that does more than just tell the time. Made from “Humanium” – a metal processed from confiscated firearms in El Salvador – it symbolizes how peaceful transformation can be wrought from bloody conflict.