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Press Release
2013 Future Policy Award celebrates world’s best disarmament policies
World Future Council partners with United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs
New York/Hamburg, 22 February – The World Future Council is pleased to announce that this year’s Future Policy Award will celebrate the world’s best disarmament policies. The World Future Council is collaborating with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs to encourage new thinking on disarmament and to advance common solutions to this global problem.
The World Future Council calls for nominations (details below) for exemplary policies that can speed up policy action in the field of disarmament.
The prestigious Future Policy Award is the first and only award that celebrates policies rather than people on an international level. It serves to showcase existing and working policy solutions to an international audience. The Award will be presented just before the start of UN Disarmament Week (24 – 30 October 2013) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The numbers are striking: Global military spending is estimated to have exceeded $1.7 trillion in 2011 whereas Oxfam estimates that achieving the hunger-related Millennium Development Goals would cost $75 billion per year up to 2015 – i.e. less than five per cent of annual military expenditures.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “No development, no peace. No disarmament, no security. Yet when both advance, the world advances, with increased security and prosperity for all”. This describes in a nutshell an issue concerning all nations and all people: the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction poses an existential threat to life on earth as we know it. At the same time, the illicit arms trafficking of small arms and light weapons increases tensions, undermines peace, stimulates armed violence and prevents the achievement of sustainable development and human security.
United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane: “I am pleased to support this timely initiative. Disarmament has evolved from a policy aimed at reining in the excesses of the Cold War to a global imperative necessary for achieving development, adherence to humanitarian principles and human security. The 2013 Future Policy Award is an excellent opportunity to both educate the public and to develop new ideas for the future.”
Alexandra Wandel, Director of the German-based World Future Council Foundation: “With our Future Policy Award we want to raise global awareness for policy solutions that work. The aim of the World Future Council is to identify exemplary policies and to speed up policy action in the interests of present and future generations by promoting and spreading them. The 2013 Future Policy Award will celebrate policies that have distinctly advanced sustainable disarmament.”
Nominations are to be received by the 10th March 2013. A research team will screen all nominated policies according to the seven principles for sustainable development law that were presented at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. As a result, an evaluation report will be presented to an international jury composed of experts from all five continents.
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Notes to Editors
The World Future Council
The World Future Council brings the interests of future generations to the centre of policy-making. It is comprised of 50 eminent members from around the globe who have already successfully promoted change. The Council addresses challenges to our common future and provides decision makers with effective policy solutions. The World Future Council is registered as a charitable foundation in Hamburg, Germany. For more information, visitwww.worldfuturecouncil.org
Future Policy Award
The Future Policy Award is designed to alert policymakers and the public to the importance of best practice in lawmaking and highlight outstanding examples of regulatory vision. The Award draws attention to existing sustainable policies and demonstrates that when political will is asserted, positive change can happen. Celebrating visionary policies raises public awareness, encourages rapid learning and speeds up policy action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies.
For more info, see www.worldfuturecouncil.org/future_policy_award.html.
Future Policy Award Topics:
· 2013: Disarmament
· 2012: Oceans and Coasts
· 2011: Forests
· 2010: Biodiversity
· 2009: Food Security
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)
UNODA provides substantive and organizational support for norm-setting in the area of disarmament through the work of the General Assembly and its First Committee, the Disarmament Commission, the Conference on Disarmament and other bodies. It fosters disarmament measures through dialogue, transparency and confidence-building on military matters, and encourages regional disarmament efforts.
It also provides objective, impartial and up-to-date information on multilateral disarmament issues and activities to Member States, States parties to multilateral agreements, intergovernmental organizations and institutions, departments and agencies of the United Nations system, research and educational institutions, civil society, especially non-governmental organizations, the media and the general public.
UN Disarmament Week
The annual observance of Disarmament Week, which begins on the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, 24 October, was called for in the Final Document of the General Assembly 1978 special session on disarmament (resolution S-10/2). All Member States and civil society organisations are invited to highlight the danger of the arms race, propagate the need for its cessation and increase public understanding of the urgent tasks of disarmament.
Media Contacts
World Future Council
Anne Reis
Media & Communications
Mexikoring 29
22297 Hamburg
Phone: +49 40 30 70 914-16
Fax: +49 40 30 70 914-14
[email protected]
UNODA
Ewen Buchanan
Information and Outreach
United Nations
New York 10017
Phone: +1 212 963 3022
Fax: +1 917-367-0339
[email protected]
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