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UN / DISARMAMENT WRAP
STORY: UN / DISARMAMENT WRAP
TRT: 2.55
SOURCE: UNTV / IAEA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY / MATSUMOTO, JAPAN
RECENT 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
27 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
2. Med shot, delegates
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“For too long the United Nations multilateral disarmament machinery, in particular the Conference on Disarmament, has failed us. As we look ahead, we face two critical questions: First, what are we to do when the world's single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum is incapable of delivering its mandate? Second, how can the world resume the process of building disarmament norms that apply universally?”
4. Cutaway, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“As Secretary-General, I see no fundamental flaw in the UN disarmament machinery that may be blamed for this deadlock? Certainly none that cannot be overcome by changes in State policies. The problem lies not with the vehicle, but with the driver. What is needed most of all is a closer alignment between policy priorities and multilateral disarmament goals.”
6. Cutaway, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“If the CD remains deadlocked, the General Assembly has a responsibility to step in. As I have said before, the CD should not be held perpetually hostage by one or two members. Concerns should be addressed through negotiations. The stakes are too high to continue falling short. The world expects progress. Let us defer no longer. Let us put an end to this long cycle of stagnation.”
27 JULY 2011, MATSUMOTO, JAPAN
8. Wide shot, twenty-third United Nations Conference on Disarmament
9. Cutaway, audience
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Yukiya Amano, Director General, IAEA:
“Many of the challenges which the IAEA faces today are very different from those envisaged by our founders more than 50 years ago. Today, it is not the risk of the most industrialized countries developing nuclear weapons that preoccupies the international community. Concern is focused instead on countries such as North Korea, which, contrary to its non–proliferation commitments, has developed nuclear weapons, and Iran, which is not fully implementing its comprehensive safeguards agreement with the Agency and other obligations.”
11. Wide shot, audience
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today (27 July) that the world’s sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum remains deadlocked and suggested ways to break the stalemate, including the appointment of a panel of eminent persons, the creation of an ad hoc committee of the General Assembly or a UN conference.
“For too long the United Nations multilateral disarmament machinery, in particular the Conference on Disarmament (CD), has failed us,” he said.
Established in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, the CD primarily focuses on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war, and prevention of an arms race in outer space, among other things.
“The problem lies not with the vehicle, but with the driver. What is needed most of all is a closer alignment between policy priorities and multilateral disarmament goals,” Ban said.
He stressed that the international community must never abandon multilateralism, saying that in addressing disarmament, the goal is not to advance the preferences of the few, but the common interests of all.
“If the CD remains deadlocked, the General Assembly has a responsibility to step in. As I have said before, the CD should not be held perpetually hostage by one or two members. Concerns should be addressed through negotiations.
“The world expects progress. Let us defer no longer. Let us put an end to this long cycle of stagnation,” he added.
The General Assembly meeting in New York coincided with the 23rd UN Conference on Disarmament Issues in Matsumoto, Japan, where the head of the UN nuclear agency stressed that all States must comply with their obligations under the international nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty.
Looking at the organization within today’s realities, Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that many of the challenges which the IAEA faces are very different from those envisaged by its founders more than 50 years ago.
He said “today, it is not the risk of the most industrialized countries developing nuclear weapons that preoccupies the international community. Concern is focused instead on countries such as North Korea, which, contrary to its non–proliferation commitments, has developed nuclear weapons, and Iran, which is not fully implementing its comprehensive safeguards agreement with the Agency and other obligations.”
The annual UN Conference, which has been hosted by Japan since 1989, is recognized as an important forum for frank dialogue and an exchange of views on pressing security and disarmament-related issues facing the international community. It also addresses particular regional disarmament and non-proliferation concerns, including those in the Asia-Pacific region.
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