Disarmament Week is held under the auspices of the United Nations every year from October 24 to 30. The general theme of the Week is the words — Achieving peace and security through disarmament.
The annual observance of Disarmament Week, which begins on International United Nations Day, is provided for in the Final Document of the 1978 UN General Assembly Special Session on Disarmament.
States were invited to address priority issues regarding the dangers of the arms race, as well as to promote the need to end it and promote public understanding of urgent disarmament issues.
The specific disarmament issues discussed relate to: weapons of mass destruction; disarmament in the regions of Africa, America, Asia; disarmament and development; gender and disarmament; terrorism; disarmament and children.
In 1995, the Assembly invited Governments, as well as non-governmental organizations, to continue to take an active part in Disarmament Week (resolution 50/72 B of 12 December).
The Assembly also invited the Secretary-General to continue to make the widest possible use of United Nations information bodies to promote a better understanding by the world public of urgent disarmament issues and the objectives of Disarmament Week.
The elimination of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction remains one of the main but elusive goals of the UN. Despite the commitments made by Member States, limited progress has been made towards achieving this long-standing goal. In the case of nuclear weapons, this is primarily due to growing tensions between nuclear-weapon States, as well as the rigidity of the disarmament machinery.
The General Assembly and other UN bodies, with the support of the Office for Disarmament Affairs, work for international peace and security, promoting the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, as well as international legal regulation of conventional weapons.