FOREWORD
AC T ION FOR DIS A RM A MENT: 10 T H INGS YOU C A N DO
With 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the world today, you make up the largest generation of youth the world has ever known. Access to education, employment, human rights, the threat of climate change are but a few of the challenges you face. The UN Secretary-General has made “working with and for young people” one of his top five priorities. In support of his youth agenda, I am working throughout the UN system to ensure that you, as young people, are included in the decision-making process on policy issues that affect your lives. This book draws your attention to another global issue of importance—the need to promote peace and security in the world through disarmament. One aspect of disarmament focuses on nuclear weapons. People born after the end of the Cold War have been spared growing up under the fear of a nuclear attack. Yet the risk posed by nuclear weapons still exists today. As SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon noted, “Sadly, we know the terrible humanitarian consequences from the use of even one [nuclear] weapon. As long as such weapons exist, so, too, will the risks of use and proliferation.” Another aspect of disarmament addresses the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Most present-day conflicts
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