Disarmament Commission

2010 Organizational Session

302^nd Meeting (PM)

Newly Elected Chairman of Disarmament Commission Encourages ‘Positive Spirit’

at Upcoming Session; Delegates Seek to Build on Momentum of Past Session

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, ahead of its 2010 substantive session slated for 29 March to 16 April, today elected Jean-Francis Régis Zinsou (Benin) as Chair, who urged that members “look at the future with a positive spirit”.

“The 2010 international disarmament calendar has a number of important events, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty review in May,” said Mr. Zinsou, in his first official remarks to the Commission.  “The outside world, the community of nations, expect a lot from those events.  It is to be hoped that this overall atmosphere of expectations will positively influence and help to focus the work.”

The Commission provides a forum for focused deliberation on two or three specific items ‑‑ one on nuclear weapons and one on conventional arms ‑‑ with the goal of achieving consensus to strengthen or create disarmament norms through the submission of concrete recommendations to the General Assembly.

Beginning in 2006, the Commission has met in three-year cycles, but it did not produce a formal document during the 2006-2008 period because no consensus was reached on either nuclear or conventional arms.  In 2009, which saw the start of the current three-year cycle, Member States had struggled to agree on an agenda, but one was eventually produced and a report duly submitted to the Assembly for consideration upon the session’s conclusion.

In response, the Assembly recommended that the Commission continue the consideration of three items at its 2010 substantive session:  “Recommendations for achieving the objective of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons”; “Elements of a draft declaration of the 2010s as the fourth disarmament decade”; and “Practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons”.  The last item was to have been taken up once the elements of a draft declaration of the fourth disarmament decade had been prepared, “preferably by 2010 and in any case no later than 2011”.

Today, the representative of Spain, speaking on behalf of the European Union, welcomed progress made by the Commission’s two working groups ‑‑ the first dealing with recommendations for achieving nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the second on the draft declaration on the fourth disarmament decade ‑‑ urging further progress in their deliberations at this session.  Agreeing, Indonesia’s delegate, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, said the Commission should ride the momentum generated by the two groups.

It was decided this afternoon that Paolo Cuculi ( Italy) would remain as Chairman of Working Group I, and Johann Paschalis ( South Africa) as Chairman of Working Group II, for the entire three-year cycle.

Also elected today, by acclamation, were Rapporteur Lachezara Stoeva (Bulgaria); and Vice-Chairperson Attila Zimonyl (Hungary), from the Group of Eastern European States; Youn Jong Kwon (Republic of Korea) and Rafael Hermoso (Philippines), from the Group of Asian States; Hassan Hamid Hassan (Sudan), from the African States Group; and Penny Douti (Greece) and Juan Ignacio Morro (Spain), from the Western European and other States Group.  The Commission agreed to take up, at a later date, the appointment of the Vice-Chairpersons from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, which had yet to agree on their candidates.

The Commission’s next meeting will take place on 29 March.

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For information media • not an official record