UN Chief calls for honouring the victims of chemical warfare

The full text of his message reads:

More than one hundred years after the first large-scale use of chemical weapons in battle, they continue to inflict terror, suffering and death.

Recent years have seen the erosion of the taboo against chemical weapons, threatening the disarmament and non-proliferation regimes.

The use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances, is intolerable and a serious violation of international law.

Impunity for their use is unacceptable.

There can be no justification for the use of these abhorrent weapons. We must remain united and determined in preventing their use, or the threat of their use. We cannot allow ourselves to become inured.

It is imperative that those who use, or have used, chemical weapons are identified and held accountable. That is the only way to meet our moral responsibility to the victims of chemical warfare.

The Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare is an occasion to pay tribute to the victims of these inhumane weapons, to assess our progress in preventing any future use, and to renew our determination to eliminate them from our world.

Today, let us renew our unequivocal commitment to the Chemical Weapons Convention and our support to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Let us honour the victims of chemical warfare by pledging to consign these dreadful weapons to the pages of history.

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