GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the destruction of chemical and unexploded weaponry at a convention in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ban, in a message delivered by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Timothy Caughley at the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons’ Protocol V in Geneva, urged states to ratify global treaties banning chemical and unexploded weaponry. Ban also made similar remarks Monday at The Hague, the United Nations reported.
Ban praised the recent Albanian initiative to destroy their stockpile of chemical weapons and urged other states to do the same.
Chemical and unexploded weapons “continue to endanger lives long after hostilities have ended, and hinder the socio-economic reconstruction of societies struggling to emerge from the ravages of war," Ban said in a statement.
Since November 2006 when Protocol V went into force, 35 states have adhered to its rules.
“It is in the interests of all to ensure that their pernicious hazards to people and the environment are minimized and, where possible, eliminated," Ban said.
