Topic:
Country: Guatemala
Delegate Name: Harpreet Kaur
A nuclear explosion is much more powerful than that of conventional explosions. When a nuclear weapon explodes it produces ionizing radiation, which kills or sickens those exposed, contaminates our environment, and has long-term health consequences, including cancer and genetic damage. They can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardizing the natural environment, as well as the lives of future generations through their long-term catastrophic effects. Guatemala’s State Agenda is embodied in the peace agreements concluded in 1996. This applies equally to Guatemala’s foreign policy, whose spirit is saturated with a profound position for peace and the hunt for solutions within international law. Since Guatemala signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in September 1999, Guatemala has been trying to contribute to the fullest extent possible to its early entry into force. Guatemala realizes the vulnerability of the system of disarmament and the maintenance of peace. And, as Guatemala pointed out during the preparatory conference held in October of that year in Vienna, Guatemala maintains our commitment to the creation of a better world, one that is free of nuclear weapons.
Guatemala has participated in the regional seminar that took place in Lima, Peru, and has cooperated with the International Monitoring System for the installation of an auxiliary seismic station in our territory. Guatemala has assisted in the missions the secretariat has sent to our country. Several Guatemalan technicians have received training from the Treaty Organization Secretariat. Guatemala is convinced that the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will be a huge advance in the history of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and is making every effort to contribute to the accomplishment of this objective. Despite the arduous attempts that are being made to that end, the UN has begun a new millennium without having attained the principal objectives sought, which are not only to hold back the proliferation of nuclear weapons but also to achieve their complete destruction.
Guatemala’s delegation urges all the parties concerned to intensify their efforts and, with firm political will, move nuclear disarmament out of its present status and thereby fulfill the commitment by certain States to disarm and by others to renounce the possession of nuclear weapons. The present time is one of great international turbulence when we see that the support of some governments enables certain groups to use very powerful nuclear and conventional weapons.
