Media Update: United Nations Pakistan,5 March 2025

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

MESSAGE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR DISARMAMENT AND NON-PROLIFERATION AWARENESS

5 March 2025

Humanity’s future depends on investing in the machinery of peace, not the machinery of war.

Yet global tensions are increasing, the nuclear threat is rising, and guardrails are eroding. Meanwhile, small arms and light weapons are proliferating, and rapidly evolving technologies like Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing are deepening the dangers.

On this International Day for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Awareness, I urge leaders to strengthen the systems and tools that prevent the proliferation, testing and use of deadly weapons and live up to their disarmament obligations.

I also call for a concerted effort in meeting the disarmament commitments contained in the recently adopted Pact for the Future. These commitments include working towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and new strategies to prevent the use of chemical and biological weapons, and to address the weaponization of outer space and the use of lethal autonomous weapons.

It’s time for leaders to put words into action, and invest in disarmament solutions and the peaceful future every person deserves. 

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UNICEF

PRESS RELEASE

UNICEF Statement on attack in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Islamabad, March 5, 2025 - UNICEF strongly condemns yesterday’s horrific attack in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which claimed the lives of five children, the youngest a one-year-old boy, and injured several women and children.

UNICEF expresses its heartfelt condolences to the grieving families and all those affected by this devastating attack during the holy month of Ramadan.

How many more children need to die for sense to prevail? Children should be treasured and protected, instead they are trapped in cycles of violence.

UNICEF calls for an end to this violence and for the fundamental rights of all children to be protected and upheld at all times.

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About UNICEF

UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places, to reach the world's most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.

For more information about UNICEF’s work in Pakistan, visit: https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/

For more information, please contact:

Abdul Sami Malik, UNICEF Pakistan, +92 3008556654, asmalik@unicef.org