January 07, 2025 09:04 pm (IST)

Make this your homepage

Foreign

Delhi assembly elections on Feb 5, results on Feb 8 | Allu Arjun visits boy injured during Pushpa 2 stampede in Hyderabad | Donald Trump repeats his US-Canada merger offer after Justin Trudeau's resignation | India's HMPV cases surge to 7 after two cases reported from Nagpur | H-1B visa renewal will get simpler in 2025, Indians to benefit most as home country travel won't be required | As India detects 3 HMPV cases, #lockdown trends; Centre says no need to panic | Justin Trudeau announces resignation as Canada's PM amid rising pressure by partymates | 8 jawans, driver killed as Maoists blow up security vehicle in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur | Atul Subhash suicide: Karnataka High Court refuses to quash FIR against wife Nikita Singhania | Delhi elections: Congress launches Pyari Didi scheme promising Rs. 2,500 per month to women residents

UN urges ratification of chemical weapons convention

India Blooms News Service | | Apr 30, 2014, at 06:21 pm

#Ban Ki-Moon # Chemical Warfare # chemical weapons convention # weapons of mass destruction

New York, Apr 30 (IBNS): Marking the Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President John Ashe on Tuesday urged the six reticent Member States to sign and/or ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention which aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.

“Until membership is universal and the last stockpiles of chemical weapons are destroyed, our work will not be done,” Ban said in reference to Angola, Egypt, Israel, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar and South Sudan.

Ashe echoed Ban’s tribute to the victims, adding that chemical weapons “have no place in our world.”

He added that the international community’s commitment to eliminating the threat of chemical weapons strengthens one of the core missions of the UN: the promotion of peace, security and stability worldwide.

Observed annually on 29 April, the Day commemorates the date in 1997 on which the Convention entered into force. The treaty prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States parties.

Seeing first-hand the “horrific use” of chemical weapons in Syria in 2013, Ban called their use “a deplorable offense against humanity.”

This year’s observance comes just days after the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN announced that 92.5 per cent of Syria’s chemical weapons programme has been either removed or destroyed.

“The multinational effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons programme shows what can be done when the international community comes together,” Ban said.

In the past year, Syria and Somalia joined the Convention, raising its membership to 190 States.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.