The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Thursday what he called "Securing our common future: an agenda for disarmament." The agenda spells out three priorities, namely to save humanity, save lives, and to remove weapons for the future generations.

In the first part of his lecture to students at the University of Geneva, Guterres explained the plan to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Distinguishing the UN Security Council's priority in dealing with this issue as the General Assembly's first resolution in 1946 was to eradicate all WMDs. Guterres noted that there are approximately 15,000 nuclear weapons stored around the world and hundreds of them are set up ready to launch in minutes, attesting the declining issue is in severe crisis.

Guterres referred to treaties signed post-Cold War saying, "our world is going backward," since the difficult negations to scale down nuclear arsenals, the prohibition of nuclear tests and the dismantling of nuclear warheads, "and still we are in a much more dangerous situation than ever before."

He also mentioned the lack of resuming dialogue and negotiations between the US and Russia to dismantle the nuclear weapons even further.

At this time the U.N. efforts to eliminate the spread of the nuclear threat is "the main stepping stone to guarantee peace and security internationally," especially in the last 50 years since the treaty was signed, the number of states obtaining nuclear weapons has decreased to 10.

In the second priority of his plan, Guterres mentioned the states shift in developing illegal IEDs, ballistic missiles, rockets, and artillery, which is increasing armed violence around the world.

He also confirmed that banning some traditional weaponry is based on restricting the effects it has on innocent civilians caught up in the middle of conflicts leading to catastrophic numbers in injuries, deaths, displacement.

Data by the UN confirmed the displacement of more than 65 million people by 2016, due to war, violence, and persecution that is mainly due to the armed conflicts shifting from open fields to cities where the explosive impacts caused most of these casualties.

Guterres noted he would support U.N. members in setting restrictions on the use of these weapons in residential areas. Adding the launch of a new initiative to combat illicit trade and trafficking in small arms, nationally and across all borders, and using the resources to launch it from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) to allocate and destroy them.

In the third priority, Guterres touched on removing weapons to protect future generations in building technological advancements that can also be used to modernize these weapons to be outrageous. Guterres emphasized on the UN's establishment role in preventing external political conflicts, although after seven decades we still are in a dangerous world as it previous were.

News Source: KUNA