The Member States of OPANAL and the Secretary-General of the Agency participate in the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly – First Committee, which deals with disarmament and other matters related to international security. The First Committee is chaired by Ambassador Mohammad Hussein Ali Bahr Aluloom, Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, and takes place from 2 October to 2 November 2017 in New York.
In addition to his work at the First Committee, Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares, Secretary-General of OPANAL participated in the Panel: Exchange with the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and other High-Level officials on the «Current state of affairs in the field of arms control and disarmament and the role of international organizations with mandates in this field «, in which also participate representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament at Geneva. Read the statement by the Secretary-General of OPANAL in the panel.
In addition, OPANAL and the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations, current Coordinator of OPANAL in New York, organized a side event on October 10, 2017 on the «Dialogue among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and Mongolia» with the main objective of continuing the contact among the States Parties and Signatories to the treaties establishing Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and Mongolia. During the side event, the Secretary-General of OPANAL mentioned that «Our foremost intention in organizing this informal meeting is to enhance the role of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones for our common objective of a world free of those weapons of mass destruction. Such Zones essentially share a common juridical nature». In that regard, Ambassador Macedo Soares stressed the importance of continuing the process of the Conferences of States Parties and Signatories to the Treaties that Establish Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and Mongolia, held every five years since 2005. Read the remarks by the Secretary-General at the side event.
Statements by the Member States and the Secretary-General of OPANAL at the General Debate of the First Committee:
Argentina
Cuba
Honduras
Mexico, on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition
Nicaragua
Peru
Trinidad and Tobago, on behalf of CARICOM
Venezuela
For more information about the debates of the First Committee:
To read the rest of the Statements: