Youth Committee Pre-Conference: Disarm the World with Knowledge

Yesterday the UN University hosted a pre-conference to get youth engaged in the DPI-NGO conference on Disarmament, Peace and Security in Mexico in September.  

The morning session focused on nuclear issues and featured Kristin Jenssen, Political Affairs Officer, Weapons of Mass Destruction, with UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), Kathleen Sullivan, with the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education website of the UN, Cyber School Bus and Sheena Nayak, grad student at Monterey Institute of International Studies.  The discussion touched upon the history of arms control, how NGO's can engage youth in the disarmament arena, and the human security aspect of nuclear weapons; that nuclear weapons make all of us fundamentally insecure.  

The afternoon session focused on conventional weapons, small arms and land mines and featured Daniel Prins, Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of UNODA, Gustavo Laurie, UN Mine Action Service and UN DPKO, Akiko Ikeda, Programme Officer for UN Mine Action Service and Jake Walko, from International Action Network on Small Arms.  The panelists discussed the difficulties in controlling the spread of small arms, successes and challenges in drawing down the number of land mines in violent conflicts, and the human rights implications and victims’ rights associated with land mines. 

The event also featured disarmament-themed posters from DPI-NGO’s youth poster series and was a great precursor to the September DPI-NGO conference on Disarmament, Peace and Security.