Welcome

Building Peace and Security Partnerships

The Geneva Forum is a joint initiative of the Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva (QUNO), the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Our overarching objective is to contribute to international peace and security by building partnerships among and between governments, international organisations and NGOs on disarmament and arms control issues of common concern. The work of the Geneva Forum comprises three main tracks:

1. Building agendas around new and emerging issues in arms control and disarmament.
2. Supporting ongoing arms control and disarmament negotiations.
3. Promoting the implementation of arms control and disarmament agreements.

In carrying out this work, the Geneva Forum interacts closely with government missions to the United Nations, international organisations, NGOs and the media, and actively engages Geneva's important, humanitarian, development and human rights communities in its disarmament work.

 

Highlight:

The NPT Action Plan and Comprehensive Nuclear Safeguards - 14 March 2012, Palais des Nations

UNIDIR and the Geneva Forum co-hosted the third meeting in a discussion series which aims to identify those elements of the Action Plan adopted at the 2010 NPT Review Conference that are ripe for implementation in the near- and medium-term, and at discussing practical ways to make progress in the run-up to the 2012 NPT Preparatory Committee to be held in Vienna (30 April - 11 May).

The briefing was devoted to the strengthening of the safeguards system of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Presentations by Mark Hibbs (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Annette Schaper (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) looked at measures that would help to promote the adoption of the Additional Protocol on safeguards, and to ensure the universal application of comprehensive safeguards. The speakers concluded that the IAEA's activities regarding the universalisation of safeguards had overall been good and had made the most of the outreach opportunities which had presented themselves, but that continued financialsupport for the Agency to carry out its work was a high priority that needed to be protected. The advantages of safeguards and some practical steps that could help advance the creation of global, universal safeguards were outlined. Finally it was noted that Action 29 of the 2010 NPT Action Plan, on safeguards, is the only Action that straddles two of the NPT's pillars simultaneously: being of relevance both to nuclear disarmament and to nuclear non-proliferation.

You can listen to the presentations by Mark Hibbs and Annette Schaper on UNIDIR's website.