On Commemorative event for the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster

Initiated by Belarus and supported by the United Nations Development Programme – UNDP, a special commemorative event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster took place at the United Nations Office at Geneva on May 13, 2016.
More than 50 representatives from different countries and international organizations, including permanent representatives of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Tajikistan, as well as of the European Union, participated in the event.
The permanent representatives of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation noted in their statements the importance and the expediency to continue the international cooperation on Chernobyl, the necessity to coordinate national efforts to overcome the aftermath of the disaster.
The Permanent Representative of Belarus Yury Ambrazevich called upon to support Belarus’ initiative on the launch in 2017 of a new international strategy on Chernobyl “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the Chernobyl affected regions through the partnership, innovation and investments” by 2030.
The Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Michael Møller , the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Christian Friis Bach and the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction Robert Glasser confirmed the readiness of the United Nations organizations to provide necessary assistance to the countries most affected by the disaster in the future.   
The detailed report on the accomplished and running tasks of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl was presented by the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Cihan Sultanoglu. She underscored the thoroughness of and high demand for the unique experience and knowledge accumulated by the three most affected countries with the support of the whole international community in the course of overcoming the consequences of the worst manmade disaster.
Representatives of the WHO, UNICEF, IFRCRC, UNEP, WMO, IAEA – international organizations — members of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl, as well as a number of other international organizations and UN agencies expressed their readiness to work together on the fleshing out of the new phase of the international cooperation on Chernobyl.
While concluding the event, the Permanent Representative of Belarus opened the exhibition of paintings of Belarusian children “Colouring Chernobyl”, which was conducted in the United Nations Office Library.

Print version