DISARMAMENT COMMISSION ADOPTS AGENDA FOR 2007 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION

Disarmament Commission                                     

2006 Organizational Session                                

276^th Meeting (AM)

DISARMAMENT COMMISSION ADOPTS AGENDA FOR 2007 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION

Meeting in a brief organizational session today, the United Nations Disarmament Commission adopted its provisional agenda for the next substantive session, to be held from 9 to 27 April 2007, and re-established its two working groups to deal with the agreed agenda items on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, and confidence-building in the conventional weapons sphere.

The Commission also established the Committee of the Whole to deal with other substantive organizational matters, and took note of the provisional Programme of Work and Timetable 1 (document A/CN.10/2007/CRP.1), which contained somewhat detailed information about the first week of the Commission’s work.

It also reviewed the draft resolution approved by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) and recommended for adoption by the General Assembly, which had specific bearing on the Commission’s work (document A/C.1/61/L.11).  Operative paragraphs 7 and 8 of that text, respectively, recommended that the Commission consider the following items, for the second successive year, at its 2007 substantive session:  recommendations for achieving the objective of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons; and practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons.

Elected to Chair the next session was Elbio Rosselli ( Uruguay), who, upon assuming his new post, said it would be particularly challenging to lead the next session in a context marked by a lack of important achievements in disarmament and non-proliferation.  Multilateral negotiations had not been very encouraging -- the Conference on Disarmament had been unable to adopt a programme to make it possible to renew substantive negotiations, and the recent Review Conference on the small arms action plan had also failed to achieve substantive results.

This year was the tenth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), but the Treaty had yet to enter force, absent the necessary ratifications by the so-called “Annex 2” States required for the Treaty’s operation, he noted.  The coming years would begin a new review cycle for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was the cornerstone of the global security system, but, unfortunately, no significant progress had been made recently, with respect to the 13 practical steps towards nuclear disarmament agreed at the 2000 NPT Review Conference.

Nevertheless, he said he looked forward to officiating the specialized body, which he trusted would devise concrete recommendations to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with the Conference on Disarmament and the First Committee.  He would work jointly with the Chairs of the two working groups to comply with the Commission’s mandate, for which he hoped for delegations’ valuable support.

Chairs of the subsidiary bodies, working groups I and II, would continue to lead those groups’ deliberations, in accordance with decision 52/492 of September 1998, which deemed that they would be elected for three-year cycles.  They were, respectively, Jean-Francis Regis Zinsou ( Benin) and Carlos Duarte ( Brazil).

Eight Vice-Chairman were to be elected to the Commission, of which five were elected today, as follows:  Bernd Heinze (Germany) and Roman Hunger (Switzerland), Group of Western European and Other States; Ricardo Morote (Peru), Group of Latin American and Caribbean States; and Jacek Januchowski (Poland) and Zelijko Vokobratovich (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Group of Eastern European States.

Consultations were continuing for the election of the remaining vice-chairpersons and rapporteur.

The next meeting of the Disarmament Commission will be announced.

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For information media • not an official record