UNA-NYC Joins Committee on Disarmament, Peace & Security

One of our New York chapter's main advocacy themes this year is disarmament and non-proliferation. In order to support the cause of disarmament United Nations Association of New York joined the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace & Security.

In an effort to leverage its strong membership constituency, UNA-NYC participated in the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in May 2010 at UN Headquarters in New York. Our organization was represented at the conference by Robin van Puyenbroeck, UNA-NYC Treasurer.

The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The NPT represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.

This year's Review Conference considered critical issues such as the universality of the Treaty, nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, measures to advance the peaceful use of nuclear energy, safety and security, regional disarmament and non-proliferation, implementation of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East and ways to promote engagement with civil society in strengthening NPT norms and in promoting disarmament education.

The 2010 Review Conference was considered a relative success — 189 nations reaffirmed their commitment to eliminating all nuclear weapons and setting a new deadline for holding a regional conference to eliminate unconventional weapons from the Middle East.