QATAR TO HOST WORKSHOP ON IMPLEMENTING SECURITY COUNCIL

 

RESOLUTION 1540 (2004), 8-11 MARCH

 

NEW YORK, 6 March (Office for Disarmament Affairs) -- A United Nations workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be held from 8-11 March in Doha, Qatar.  The workshop is hosted by the Government of Qatar and organized by the Office for Disarmament Affairs with funding from the European Union and the Governments of Norway, United Kingdom and the United States.

Officials and experts from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen as well as representatives of a number of international, regional and subregional organizations have been invited to participate.  Consistent with the objectives of resolution 1540 (2004), the workshop aims to enhance national capacities for the management of export-control processes at a practical level as well as improve information and experience-sharing between national export-control and enforcement authorities.  The workshop is also expected to facilitate assistance cooperation related to the implementation of the resolution.

On 28 April 2004, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1540 (2004) under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, obliging all States to refrain from providing any form of support to non-State actors that attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.  Under resolution 1540 (2004), all States are to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of these weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials.  The resolution also affirms support for the multilateral treaties whose aim is to eliminate or prevent the proliferation of those weapons.

The 1540 Committee, a subsidiary body of the Security Council, was established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004).  States were called upon to report to it on steps they had taken or intended to take in implementation of the resolution.  On 25 April 2008, by its resolution 1810 (2008), the Security Council extended the mandate of the 1540 Committee until 25 April 2011 and emphasized the importance for all States to implement fully resolution 1540 (2004).  The Council requested the 1540 Committee to continue to organize and participate in outreach events at the regional and subregional level to promote States’ implementation of resolution 1540 (2004).

For further information, contact Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack, tel.:  +1 212 963 3633.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record