Press conference by chair of Security Council committee aimed at preventing

 

terrorist acquisition of mass destruction weapons

The Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004) that had “passed the threshold of virtual activity to real-life operation”, its Chairman told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Reporting on the activities of the recently established Security Council Committee, also known as the Committee 1540, Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania said the Committee was close to completing the first stages of its work, namely to render it fully operational and functional.

A subsidiary body of the Security Council Committee was established by the Council to report on the implementation of resolution 1540, by which the Council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, decided that all States shall refrain from supporting by any means non-State actors that attempt to acquire, use or transfer nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems.

By other terms of the non-proliferation resolution, the Council decided that all States would establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons and means of delivery, in particular for terrorist purposes, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials, and adopt legislative measures in that respect.

Adopted on 28 April 2004, resolution 1540 called on States to report to the Committee no later than six months from its adoption on steps they had taken or intended to take in its implementation.  The Committee, established for a period of no longer than two years, is comprised of all Council members.

The importance assigned to the issue of the correlation between the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the risk of them reaching terrorists or other non-State actors had been evident during last week’s general debate, Ambassador Motoc said.  Most speakers during the debate had referred to possibility of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.  Described as the most ominous security threat of the present time, many high level speakers had welcomed the adoption of resolution 1540, he said.

With the adoption of the resolution 1540, a major gap had been filled in existing international regulations and regimes, he added.  The non-proliferation resolution, which addressed the relation between weapons of mass destruction, their proliferation and risk of them falling into the hands of non-State actors, had been a premiere for the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole.

The resolution was distinct in that it imposed binding and far-reaching obligations on Member States to adopt legislative and administrative regulations to deal with weapons of mass destruction proliferation, he said.  By adopting the resolution, the Council called on all Member States to adopt legislative, administrative and institutional measures to deter and prevent terrorist and other non-State actors from acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction.  Every State had the obligation to criminalize such acts by way of domestic legislation.  The resolution also emphasized the need to strengthen border controls.

Elected Committee Chairman in June, Mr. Motoc expressed his intention to regularly brief correspondents on the Committee’s work.  Indeed, transparency was one of the guiding principles of the Committee’s work.  Dealing with the threat of weapons of mass destruction reaching the hands of terrorists was not only the Committee’s task, but also the task of all who cared about the non-proliferation of such weapons to non-State actors.

Noting that the Committee was nearing the 28 October deadline for the submission of the first national reports, he stressed the need for all States to report to the Committee.  It was not enough to have a fair response, or a majority of Member States reporting.  All Member States had to report.  The philosophy of resolution 1540 was that the regime it created depended on the response of Member States.  At stake was the Organization’s capability to deal with new threats and old threats that had acquired a larger dimension.

The main thrust of the Committee’s work so far had to lay the foundations for the receipt and processing of national reports, he said.  The Committee also had to deliver on the obligation to extend cooperation, whenever it was called for and justified.  After the delivery and processing of the first round of reports, the Committee would have a clearer understanding of what needed to be done.  Some Members States with experience in terms of legislation and institutional handling of the issues had voluntarily made that wealth of expertise available to those countries with the need for additional information.

In addition to establishing the guidelines for its work, the Committee had also initiated work in another area envisaged by the resolution, namely inter-organizational cooperation, he continued.  In that regard, he had written to the Directors-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to express his readiness to meet in the future.  Next week he would have an opportunity to meet with the Director-General of the Chemical Weapons Organization while he was attending the meetings of the General Assembly’s First Committee.

In addition to the formal documents it had adopted, the Committee had also agreed on the construction of a web page, which would soon be accessible to the public, he said.  As Chairman, he had also conducted a series of outreach activities, including meetings with the United Nations general membership.  He had been impressed with the response to that initiative.

With the receipt of the first two reports from Turkmenistan and Malta, respectively, the Committee was now speeding up the hiring of experts to support its work, he said.  The Committee had also discussed the financing for the hiring of experts to ensure the prompt translation of a considerable number of documents.  The Committee was very close to organizing its work into three subcommittees to help with the prompt processing of national reports.

Like other subsidiary bodies, the Committee worked on the basis of consensus, he said.  In that regard, every member had expressed a heavy sense of responsibility and a clear sense of urgency about the Committee’s work.  No one wanted to wake up one day and learn of an incident that involved weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

While it had been able to draw on the experience of other similar committees, such as the 1267 Committee and the Counter-Terrorism Committee, Committee 1540 was covering new ground and had a degree of sensitivity and complexity, he said.

In response to a question on country reports, Mr. Motoc said the fact that two countries had reported one month in advance of the stated deadline was quite exceptional.  Many other countries were in an advanced stage of their report preparation.  In some cases, outlines had been circulated.

* *** *