First Committee

The rule of law and not the rule of power should be promoted in dealing with issues related to disarmament and international security, and exclusive and discriminatory approaches should be avoided, the First Committee heard today as it continued its annual general debate.

It was a conundrum that, while the international community professed a desire for greater progress on disarmament to secure a safer world, it allowed outdated mechanisms at the disposal of Member States to deliver stalemates instead of the advancement of that objective, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it continued its general debate.

“If major steps forward in disarmament are postponed indefinitely, if questions persist of compliance with non-proliferation commitments, and if military spending continues to rise while Millennium Development Goals continue to be unmet, then our potential contributions will be correspondingly limited,” the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, warned the Disarmament Committee today, as it began its general debate.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) approved its agenda and work programme for the sixty-fifth General Assembly session at a brief organizational meeting today.

Strengthening multilateralism and reframing the disarmament debate had advanced the present positive momentum and led to the approval of 54 key texts, more than half by consensus, bolstering treaties on nuclear test bans and arms control and halting the spread of nuclear weapons, the First Committee Chairman José Luis Cancela said today as the Committee wrapped up its sixty-fourth session.

The First Committee today recommended that the General Assembly convene a conference on an arms trade treaty in 2012 to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest possible international standards for conventional arms transfers, recognizing that the absence of agreed standards for those transfers to address the problems relating to unregulated trade and their diversion to the illicit market contributed to armed conflict, the displacement of people, organized crime and terrorism.

Bold, sweeping plans to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals, build confidence and boost transparency features in one of nine draft resolutions overwhelmingly approved this afternoon by the Disarmament Committee, as the present positive momentum in the field found remarkably few voices of dissent.

Recognizing that preventing an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security, the General Assembly would call uponall States, particularly those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space, according to the terms of one of 25 draft resolutions and decisions approved this afternoon by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).

Removing nuclear weapons from a state of high-alert, halting the threat of a renewed nuclear arms race and cementing commitments and efforts to do both reflected the positive progress in the field of disarmament, according to one of 13 draft texts approved today by the Disarmament Committee, as it began taking action on the more than 50 draft resolutions and decisions before it.

The barriers blocking disarmament negotiations were beginning to come down, a clear sign of which had been the agreement last May in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament of a programme of work, after a decade-long impasse, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today.