These
insights on the treatment in the CD of the core issue, nuclear disarmament,
were offered by UNIDIR as background to the current thematic
debate on that issue in the Conference.
Participants in that debate on 19 June
will have heard the CD’s president, Ambassador Kahiluotu (Finland), draw on
some of these points.
1. Nuclear
disarmament was the subject of the first resolution adopted by the UN General
Assembly in 1946. The first special session of the General Assembly on disarmament (UNSSOD I) made clear in its consensus resolution that the
accumulation of weapons, particularly nuclear weapons, constituted much more a
threat than a protection for mankind. At its initial session in 1979, the
Committee on Disarmament (pre-cursor of the CD) which was established by UNSSOD
I, agreed a list of issues for its future work on the cessation of the arms
race and disarmament. Top of this list of ten subjects, often referred to
as the “Decalogue”, was nuclear weapons in all its aspects.
2. The more
detailed agenda for 1979 (CD/12) contained six items, three of which related to
nuclear disarmament: (1) a nuclear test ban; (2) cessation of the nuclear arms
race and nuclear disarmament; and (3) effective international arrangements to
assure non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear
weapons.
3. The first
proposal on the issue of “cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear
disarmament” was submitted by the Group of Eastern European States in 1979. It
envisaged negotiations on the cessation of the production of all types of
nuclear weapons and the gradual reduction of their stockpiles until their
complete destruction.
4. That
document was followed by a number of working papers submitted by the Group of
21 (members of the Non-Aligned Movement) proposing that the CD should begin
informal consultations on the elements for negotiations on nuclear disarmament
and subsequently establish a working group for negotiations of agreements and
concrete measures on nuclear disarmament. No consensus emerged on any of these
early proposals or on other proposed mandates for nuclear disarmament tabled in
the 1980s.
5. As of 1994,
under the item “cessation of nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament” the
Conference began closer consideration of the prohibition of the production of
fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Proposals
to list fissile material as a separate agenda item from nuclear disarmament did
not acquire consensus but ultimately, in order to ensure that fissile material
would continue to be addressed, the CD agreed that the President would make a
statement following the adoption of the agenda that this issue could be dealt
with under the nuclear disarmament item.
6. From the
beginning of the 1995 session the atmosphere in the CD was influenced by
uncertainties surrounding preparations for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
and Extension Conference and its outcome. It was expected by many non-nuclear
weapon states (NNWS) that reciprocation for their agreement to the indefinite
extension of the NPT would generate momentum for dealing with nuclear disarmament
in the Conference.
7. When this
did not eventuate the G21 called for the immediate establishment of an Ad Hoc
Committee to negotiate after the conclusion of the CTBT negotiations on a
phased programme of nuclear disarmament and for the eventual elimination of nuclear
weapons within a time-bound framework. Although this proposal did not command
consensus, a number of members of the G21 submitted a three-phase “programme of
action for the elimination of nuclear weapons”, as a basis for work of an Ad
Hoc Committee. The first phase (1996–2000) envisaged measures aimed at reducing
the nuclear threat and measures of nuclear disarmament, the second phase
(2000–2010) included measures to reduce nuclear arsenals and to promote
confidence between states, and the third phase (2010–2020) was planned for
“Consolidation of a Nuclear Weapon Free World”.
8. In the
aftermath of the CTBT negotiations a range of other proposals emerged, amongst
them one by Japan to appoint a Special Coordinator on nuclear disarmament
charged with identifying issues in the field of nuclear disarmament that could
be negotiated in the Conference. South Africa submitted a draft decision and
mandate for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on nuclear disarmament “to
deliberate upon practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to
eliminate nuclear weapons as well as to identify if and when one or more such
steps should be the subject of negotiations in the Conference”. And Algeria
submitted a dual proposal on nuclear disarmament and fissile material.
9. The first
President of the 1998 session, mindful of the growing interest of members in
addressing nuclear disarmament, conducted a series of consultations and issued
a statement in which he acknowledged the “extremely high priority of the agenda
item ‘Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament’”. Later that
year, the CD established subsidiary bodies on fissile material and NSAs but not
on nuclear disarmament per se, prompting the G21 to state that a “satisfactory
solution to the issue of nuclear disarmament will have a direct bearing on the
work of the CD in the future”.
10. Thereafter
mandates for subsidiary bodies were fused into a single document – the so-called
“comprehensive and balanced programme of work” - under which no progress has
been made on any of the core issues including nuclear disarmament. None of the work programmes proposed
during the current deadlock has entailed a negotiating
mandate for nuclear disarmament, but CD/1933/Rev.1 sought to strengthen the
relevant mandate through the term “deal with nuclear disarmament” in contrast
to CD/1864’s notion of an exchange of views on this issue.
This
is a guest post by Tim Caughley. Tim is a Resident Senior Fellow at UNIDIR.
The
artwork is by Ai Y,
of Hiroshima, Japan,
awarded Second Place in the Nature
category, UN ART FOR PEACE 2012 ages 13-17, www.un.org/disarmament/
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