Arms Control Association Press Briefing
Registration is closed for this event
Friday, February 9, 2007
9:30 – 11:00 A.M.
National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Murrow and White Rooms
Contact Wade Boese at (202) 463-8270 x104 for more information.
Although biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons dominate media headlines and public fears about safety and security in the United States, conventional arms inflict numerous deaths and untold suffering throughout the world every day. The global arms trade is unregulated and civilians are often the victims. Seeking to address this problem, the United Kingdom last year spearheaded a UN resolution to begin exploring this year universal standards for the global arms trade. Meanwhile, the Norwegian government will host this month the inaugural meeting of its initiative to ban cluster munitions, which spread up to hundreds of small bombs over a broad area, that have “unacceptable humanitarian consequences.” The U.S. government opposed both these efforts. Still, Washington reportedly found recently that Israel might have violated U.S. rules on using U.S.-origin cluster munitions in Lebanon last year. The ambassadors will discuss the respective initiatives of their countries and the other panel experts will discuss what international and U.S. policy should be on these crucial issues.
Speakers:
Amb. John S. Duncan, Ambassador for Multilateral Arms Control and Disarmament. Ambassador Duncan joined the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1980 and has served in many posts, including as Deputy International Advisor to General Wesley Clark, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, during the Kosovo conflict. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1993.
Amb. Roald Naess, Representative of Norway to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Ambassador Naess led the Norwegian delegation to the 2006 review conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and served as the rotating chairman of the NSG in 2005-2006. His worked has focused on multilateral security issues related to the United Nations, NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Stephen Goose, Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. Goose leads delegations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines to diplomatic conferences and is chairman of that coalition’s Treaty Working Group. Human Rights Watch was a founder of the nongovernmental Cluster Munition Coalition that is dedicated to stopping the use of that type of weapon. Goose is the co-chair of the Coalition's steering committee.
Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association.