“We cannot go backwards,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message addressing the fifth Special Session of the States parties to review the operation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. ‘Senseless weapons of terror’ “The use of chemical weapons has persisted; each use threatens to reverse our hard-won gains,”...
Over the course of two weeks of meetings, countries are expected to make progress on adding new so-called “forever chemicals” to the list of toxic substances to be banned or restricted under the Stockholm Convention – the global treaty protecting human health and the environment from long-lasting chemical pollution. They...
Industrially produced trans fat – commonly found in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils and spreads – is responsible for up to 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year, the UN agency said. WHO has released a status report that follows up on its 2018 call for the...
Speaking on behalf of High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu, her deputy, Adedeji Ebo, said that “the absence of accountability” for the previous use of chemical weapons by combatants in Syria’s long-running civil war, “is a threat to international peace and security and a danger to us all”. “It is, therefore, imperative...
Updating ambassadors on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, as per Security Council resolution 2118 (2013), High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, said she has been stressing each month “for many years now”, that continued unresolved inconsistencies meant Syria was out of compliance. Continued efforts, ‘unsuccessful’ Since her...