DYB2011-Part-II-web

United Nations Disarmament Yearbook 2011: Part II
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For a list of events held at the margins of the sixty-sixth session of the
First Committee, see annex IV to this chapter.
Secretary-General’s Messenger of Peace
Michael Douglas has served as a United Nations Messenger of Peace
since 1998. He spoke at the inauguration of the “Cities are not targets
(CANT)” exhibit in the General Assembly Hall on 24 March.
He also joined the Secretary-General and a number of other United
Nations Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors in recording video
messages of solidarity with the people of Japan in the wake of the 11 March
earthquake and tsunami. The messages were played to affected populations
via national Japanese broadcast partners, online partners, United Nations
Information Centres and the United Nations social media channels. In addition,
in November, Michael Douglas recorded a public service announcement for
the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
Organization, urging the entry into force of the Treaty.
International Day against Nuclear Tests
The Second International Day against Nuclear Tests was observed in
conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of the closure of the nuclear
weapons test site at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, on 29 August.
The Secretary-General, in his statement92 to mark the two occasions,
stressed the urgent need for new progress in achieving a world free of both
nuclear tests and nuclear weapons, which he described as “dangerous relics
of the Cold War, long overdue for permanent retirement”. Current voluntary
moratoriums on nuclear weapon tests, though valuable, were no substitute for
a global ban, he said. The Secretary-General also urged all States that have not
yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
to do so “as a matter of priority”.
An informal plenary session of the General Assembly was held at
United Nations Headquarters on 2 September to mark the two occasions. In
that session, the President of the General Assembly lamented the fact that the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), though approved as far
back as 1996, was still not in force. 93 He urged the international community to
92 Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, message on the occasion of the
International Day against Nuclear Tests, New York, 12 August 2011. Available from
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sgsm13745.doc.htm (accessed 17 May 2012).
93 Joseph Deiss, President of the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly,
statement to the informal plenary meeting on the occasion of the International Day against
Nuclear Tests and the twentieth anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk test site,
New York, 2 September 2011. Available from http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/
statements/nucleartests02092011.html (accessed 17 May 2012).