Sixty-second General Assembly

First Committee

1^st Meeting (PM)

DISARMAMENT COMMITTEE HOLDS ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING;

 

GENERAL DEBATE WILL BEGIN 8 OCTOBER

 

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), in an organizational meeting today, adopted its programme of work and agenda for the sixty-second session of the General Assembly.

The work programme is split into three phases, with the first phase, from 8 to 16 October, being a general debate on all disarmament and international security agenda items.  Those include reducing nuclear danger, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, missiles, verification, preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and illicit trade in small arms.

The second phase, from 17 to 26 October, will be thematic discussions on all items, along with the introduction and consideration of draft resolutions and decisions.  The final phase, lasting from 29 October to 2 November, will involve action on all draft texts.

Committee Chairman Paul Badji ( Senegal) presided over today’s meeting and welcomed the new Bureau.  Other members of the Bureau are the three Vice-Chairpersons, Bassam Darwish ( Syria), Ricardo Morote ( Peru) and Roman Hunger ( Switzerland); and the Rapporteur, Dainius Baublys ( Lithuania).

Background

The Committee’s debate begins Monday against an international backdrop marked by continuing uncertainty in the field of disarmament and international security.  While remarkable progress has been achieved towards ending the nuclear crisis in the Korean peninsula, concerns persist with regard to Iran’s nuclear programme, and progress in the various international disarmament bodies remains limited, at best.

The last States parties’ review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) produced no agreement.  The Conference on Disarmament is yet to reach consensus on its programme of work, although intensified effort in the past year to solve long-standing disagreements over its priorities has raised hopes of a turning point in multilateral disarmament diplomacy.

In 2006, a successful Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention produced concrete improvements, including the establishment of the Implementation Support Unit, operating out of the Geneva branch of the Office for Disarmament Affairs.  [The Biological Weapons Convention is formally called the Convention on the Prohibition, Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction.]

Recent reviews of other major arms control measures had mixed results.  The review of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention) resulted in several useful new measures, while the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects did not command the agreement needed to strengthen that instrument.

For his part, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had moved to revitalize the international disarmament agenda and the United Nations effectiveness in that area through the creation of a new Office for Disarmament Affairs and the appointment of Sergio Duarte as High Representative to lead it.

Highlighting his concern about the status quo in the field of disarmament, the Secretary-General told the United Nations Disarmament Commission on 9 April that the situation was “unacceptable”.

He told the deliberative body: “Unfortunately, we seem to be in a rut, where setbacks in the field of disarmament have become the norm, not the exception.”  He pointed, in particular, to the well-known dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction, and by the excessive accumulation of conventional weapons, saying, “This makes our limited progress in addressing these concerns all the more disappointing.  The failure of the 2005 NPT Review Conference, the impasse in the Conference on Disarmament and the disappointing outcome of the 2006 Small Arms Review Conference all point to a disheartening trend.”

Addressing that situation demanded renewed multilateral attention, understanding and cooperation, Mr. Ban stated.  “The threat of weapons of mass destruction and the daily suffering inflicted by small arms and light weapons, anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions have to give us pause.  They should prompt a re-examination of the foundations of our international security regime.  Such a review has to be inclusive and it must seek to strengthen existing treaties on disarmament and non-proliferation.  In today’s world, only a collective, multilateral approach can effectively eliminate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or check the spread of conventional weapons.”

Similarly, in a message on 30 April to the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, the Secretary-General warned about the “persisting crisis of confidence in the Treaty”.

“Evidence of such a crisis is widespread,” he continued. “The 2005 NPT Review Conference ended with a disappointing outcome.  There continues to be insufficient progress in nuclear disarmament, as well as a lack of universal adherence to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreements and cases of non-compliance.  Nuclear tests were conducted in 1998 and 2006, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty faces difficulties.  Ongoing tests of nuclear-capable missiles, possible discrimination in peaceful nuclear cooperation and a failure to implement the proposal to establish a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East have also raised serious concerns.”

The safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) comprises measures by which the Agency independently verifies declarations made by States about their nuclear material and activities.  These measures are implemented under various agreements and protocols, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaties.  The objectives of the comprehensive safeguards agreements are the timely detection of diversion of significant quantities of nuclear material from peaceful uses to the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and the deterrence of such diversion by the risk of early detection.

The Model Additional Protocol, approved by the Agency’s Board of Governors on 15 May 1997, provides for verification by the Agency of the “correctness and completeness” of States’ declarations, so that there would be credible assurance of non-diversion of nuclear material from declared nuclear activities and of the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities.

The latest development in the denuclearization process in the Korean peninsula came just days ago, on 3 October, when it was announced that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had endorsed an agreement to dismantle its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.  Under the terms of the agreement, that country, following an agreed timetable, will disclose all its nuclear programmes and disable all facilities, in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in economic aid.  The Secretary-General promptly hailed the agreement as an “important step forward in multilateral diplomatic efforts towards a nuclear-free peninsula”, and called upon the international community to support the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament efforts, in order to maintain the current momentum.

Concerning Iran, Mr. Ban has pressed for a negotiated solution, saying that that would also strengthen the global non-proliferation regime and restore the international community’s trust in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Emerging weapons technologies, including outer space aspects, are another area of concern among disarmament experts.  The Secretary-General‘s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, following its meeting in July, recommended that the Secretary-General should make consolidated efforts within the United Nations system to address the growing risks/threats related to the peaceful uses of outer space.  According to the Board, one option would be to establish a high-level panel to discuss the issue of outer space in all its aspects, preferably on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty).

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 8 October, to begin its general debate.

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For information media • not an official record