Fact Check

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs - Civilian Weapons Confiscation Study Group

Document announces the creation of a United Nations 'Civilian Weapons Confiscation Study Group.'

Published Aug. 20, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Document announces the creation of a United Nations "Civilian Weapons Confiscation Study Group."


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, August 2013]


Received an email purporting to show a message from the United Nations, about forcibly disarming civilians of many nations. Called UNODA: United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.

 

Origins:   In August 2013 an image was circulated on the Internet which was purported to be a current document from the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) announcing the creation of a "Civilian Weapons Confiscation Study Group" (CWCSG) intended to foster the goal of facilitating the passage of national laws in member nations to "disarm civilians":

Although UNODA is a real office within the United Nations, it has not created a "Civilian Weapons Confiscation Study Group" with the goal of disarming civilians in member nations. The document shown above is a fabricated one, as evidenced by its invalid document number (A/CN.11/L72) and the fact that the bar code and QR code shown at the bottom of the document (which uniquely identify a UN document) match those of a completely different document. This image is actually an altered version of an older document (A/CN.10/L.70) from October 2012 which simply announced an upcoming substantive session of the Disarmament Commission to be held in April 2013:

Last updated:   20 August 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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