July 10, 2023. – The ninth edition of the Summer School on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation for diplomats from Latin America and the Caribbean takes place from today until July 15 in Mexico City.
The Summer School is the educational space resulting from the close collaboration between the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico (SRE), the Matías Romero Institute (IMR ) and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Its objective is to train diplomats from Latin America and the Caribbean on issues related to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
This year's Summer School was inaugurated by Counselor María Antonieta Jáquez Huacuja, Deputy Director General of Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the SRE; Mr. Jean du Preez, Senior Manager of Education and Training Programs at CNS; Dr. Eduardo Jaramillo Navarrete, Director General for the United Nations of the SRE; Ambassador Flávio Roberto Bonzanini, Secretary General of OPANAL; Ms. Elena Sokova, Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation (VCDNP); Emb. Alejandro Alday González, General Director of the Matías Romero Institute (IMR).
During the first day, there were interventions by the heads of international organizations such as: Ambassador Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Dr. Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO); and Ms. Izumi Nakamitzu, High Representative of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA).
Likewise, Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed the participants with a keynote address on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.
The ninth edition of the Summer School will last six days, concluding on Saturday, July 15, 2023. Topics such as peaceful uses of nuclear energy, nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear weapons technology, regional and international security, control of nuclear materials, international safeguards, nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapon-free zones, humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, arms control, gender, prevention of nuclear terrorism, among others.
This year's Summer School has a record participation of countries from the region represented: 31 diplomats from 27 countries, with a high participation of women (68%).
Likewise, participants will have the opportunity to learn from leading experts from the National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), VCDNP, the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS), and the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials ( ABACC), among others.
