[caption id="attachment_328397" align="alignright" width="625"] Executive Secretary of the CTBTO, Lassina Zerbo, addressing the Science and Technology Conference 2017. Photo: CTBTO[/caption]

Originally published by United Nations Multimedia, 27 june 2017.

Young people can help mobilize support for a nuclear weapon-free world by spreading the word through social media, according to the head of a UN partner organisation working to end nuclear testing.

Lassina Zerbo, Secretary-General of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) was speaking ahead of a meeting which opens on Tuesday and runs through Friday.

The Science and Technology 2017 Conference, held in Vienna, Austria, aims at strengthening compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which prohibits nuclear explosions anywhere in the world.

More than 180 nations have signed the UN treaty, the majority of whom also have ratified it.

However, it has to be ratified by 44 other countries before it can come into force.

For the first, the conference will include a special focus on youth and young scientists, Mr Zerbo told Rocío Franco.