Disarmament Commission

2011 Organizational Session

309^th Meeting (AM)

Disarmament Commission Upholds Agenda for Upcoming Substantive Session, on Nuclear

Disarmament-Non-Proliferation, Fourth Disarmament Decade, Conventional Weapons

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, meeting ahead of its 2011 substantive session, slated to run from 4 to 22 April, today elected Hamid Al-Bayati of Iraq as Chair and decided to take up for the third consecutive year a three-pronged agenda on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, the fourth disarmament decade, and confidence-building in the field of conventional weapons.

In a brief organizational meeting today, the Commission also decided to establish a working group for the item on conventional weapons.  Outgoing Chair, Jean-Francis Régis Zinsou ( Benin), said “we are looking forward to benefiting from [Mr. Al-Bayati’s] wide experience and diplomatic skills.”  Mr. Al-Bayati, addressing the Commission for the first time at its helm, thanked members for their “constructive spirit and cooperation” during the last session, which had led to the provisional agenda before the Commission today.

The Commission is a deliberative body mandated to make recommendations on two or three specific issues related to disarmament — one on nuclear weapons and another 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.  It is in the third year of its current three-year cycle.

The representative of Indonesia, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, said that the agenda would produce “tangible outcomes” on the matters being considered.  Further, the Non-Aligned Movement was of the view that there should not be any parallel meetings of the Commission’s working groups and that matters discussed in those groups would be taken up in an equal manner.

The representative of the United Kingdom echoed that request, and suggested that consideration of the agenda item on practical confidence-building measures be pushed to the end of the Commission’s substantive session, in order to give the Commission time to agree on the elements of a draft declaration for the 2010s as the fourth disarmament decade.

The Chair then asked the Secretariat to revise the Commission’s programme of work to reflect that suggestion.

In other business, the Commission also elected Gheorghe Leucă (Republic of Moldova) and Miloš Nikolić (Montenegro) as Vice-Chairs of the Commission, representing the Group of Eastern European States.  The Groups of African States, Western European and other States and Latin American and Caribbean States were still in consultations regarding their nominees for Vice-Chairs.

The Commission will reconvene in substantive session at 10 a.m. on Monday, 4 April.

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For information media • not an official record