In its capacity as Coordinator of OPANAL in New York, the Permanent Mission of Brazil organized at the United Nations, on March 27, 2017, a commemorative event for the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. The commemoration took place outside the United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, with a view to their complete elimination.
Present in the presidium were: Ambassador Mauro Vieira, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations; Ambassador Miguel Ruíz Cabañas Izquierdo, Undersecretary of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of Mexico; he Mr. Kim Won-soo, Former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs; the Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares, Secretary General of OPANAL; and María Pía Devoto (Argentina), member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
Representatives of the following OPANAL Member States also attended: Antigua and Barbuda; Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chili; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominica; Ecuador; The Savior; Guatemala; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; Paraguay; Peru; Dominican Republic; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; Uruguay and Venezuela.
For its part, the other four nuclear-weapon-free zones and Mongolia were represented by New Zealand (Treaty of Rarotonga); Thailand (Bangkok Treaty); Cape Verde (Treaty of Pelindaba); Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia Treaty) and Mongolia. All of them made interventions in which they highlighted the contribution of the Treaty of Tlatelolco to international peace and security.
During their interventions, the Member States reiterated their commitment to the Treaty of Tlatelolco and to the work of OPANAL. Some delegations recalled the technical and legal contributions of the Agency in the deliberations of the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, with a view to their total elimination.
View Photo gallery of the event.