New York, Nov 9 2009 2:10PM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that global military spending now tops $1 trillion per year while funding for
development remains woefully low by comparison, in a message urging leaders to harness the growing political will to
reduce stockpiles of weapons and redirect expenditure towards peaceful goals.
“The world is over-armed and peace is under-funded,” Mr. Ban told participants attending the Religions for Peace Global
Youth Campaign on Disarmament for Shared Security conference in Costa Rica on Saturday.
Mr. Ban said that more weapons are being produced, “flooding markets, destabilizing societies and feeding the flames of
civil war and terror,” yet a new wave of interest in advancing disarmament goals is sweeping over governments and civil
society.
“People everywhere are recognizing as never before the tremendous burdens and risks of continuing to invest vast sums
and energies in nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, small arms, landmines, cluster munitions and other deadly
weapons,” said Mr. Ban.
Noting that disarmament is back on the global agenda, he stressed that “we must make the most of this new moment of
opportunity.”
The Secretary-General said that there can be “no development without peace and no peace without development. Disarmament
can provide the means for both.”
Mr. Ban was speaking at a three-day event in San Jose, Costa Rica, where almost 150 youth leaders representing the
world’s religious traditions came together to commit to disarmament, by developing plans for multi-religious advocacy and action at the national, regional and global levels. The conference closed today.
ENDS