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The United Nations and the Conference on DisarmamentThe Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy focuses principally on the meetings of the UN First Committee, and any significant developments in the Conference on Disarmament (CD), based in Geneva. Where appropriate, and within the limits of our resources, we also include some coverage of disarmament questions or developments relating to weapons of mass destruction that come before the UN General Assembly. For information relation to Iraq, Iran, North Korea, India, Israel and Pakistan, click on WMD Possessors and Aspirants. Latest Additions
United Nations First CommitteeThe United Nations First Committee is a subcommittee of the UN General Assembly and deals with disarmament and international security. The First Committee comprises all 192 members of the UN and meets each autumn. UN First Committee and General Assembly, 60th Sessions, September - December 2005The 60th session of the UN First Committee is currently underway at the UN in New York in autumn 2005 with Y.J. Choi, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations as chair. Latest Additions
Background: Reporting from 2004 UN First Committee
The UN's official website on the General Assembly is at: http://www.un.org/ga/60/ and the site for the First Committee is at: http://www.un.org/ga/60/first/. In addition UN press releases covering the First Committee can be viewed at http://disarmament.un.org. Information and full text of speeches from the First Committee can also be obtained from http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org. See also: Acronym Institute coverage of previous sessions of the UN First Committee. 2005 World Summit, September 14 - 16, 2005The 2005 World Summit held from September 14 - 16 at the United Nations in New York was intended to bring together heads of state and government to make concrete progress on: development; peace and collective security; human rights and the rule of law; and strengthening of the United Nations. However, in August, newly appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton introduced a raft of amendments aimed at diluting and eliminating commitments that the US does not like such as on aid, HIV/AIDS prevention, development, and non-proliferation and disarmament. The result was a watered down final agreement with the section on non-proliferation and disarmament dropped entirely. Text of the section of the final agreement on Peace and Collective Security is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0509/doc08.htm. See also:
For further information on the 2005 World Summit see:
BackgroundThe summit took place five years on from the adoption of the Millennium Declaration, which set out the Millennium Development Goals, along with objectives for the UN and for achieving a more peaceful, prosperous and just world in the 21st century. The agenda for 2005 was based on proposals set out by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the report, 'In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for all', published on March 4, 2005. Sections on Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Weapons are available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0503/doc19.htm and the full text is available at: http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/. In the run up to the summit, President of the UN General Assembly Jean Ping (of Gabon) has held a number of informal consultations with UN members and has published two draft 'outcome' documents for the summit. The draft published on August 5, 2005 is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0508/doc13.htm. The first draft, dated July 22, 2005 is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0507/doc06.htm. For a summary of changes between the first and second draft, see M+5 draft Outcome Document: How the new draft compares to the previous one, published by Reaching Critical Will. In July, Norway presented a Proposal for the outcome document, endorsed by the governments of Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Norway, Romania, South Africa and the United Kingdom. This initiative calls for efforts to reinvigorate the multilateral framework for non-proliferation and disarmament, including "practical, systematic and progressive efforts to advance disarmament globally and reduce nuclear weapons towards achieving a world free of nuclear weapons". However, none of this text appears to have made it to the summit's final document. Related DevelopmentsOn December 1, 2004, the report of the UN's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, 'A more secure world: our shared responsibility', was transmitted to the UN Secretary-General with recommendations concerning collective security, the role of the UN and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. See: Reviving The Disarmament Regimes: Recommendations of the High Level Panel and Secretary-General's Advisory Board, by Harald Müller, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.80, Autumn 2005. On April 28, 2004 the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1540 (2004) on preventing Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, analysed in Disarmament Diplomacy No.79. The resolution was originally introduced into the Security Council by the United States, following President Bush's keynote speech on proliferation on February 11. The resolution focusses on measures to prevent illegal trafficking and proliferation of WMD to non-state actors (ie terrorists). Conference on Disarmament (CD)The Conference on Disarmament is the successor to various Geneva-based arms control bodies dating back to 1960. The CD is regarded as an autonomous body, although it has a close relationship with the United Nations. In March 1995, the CD adopted a mandate to negotiate a ban on the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons - fissban, aka fissile materials treaty (FMT), aka fissile materials cut-off treaty (FMCT). Fissile Materials
CD meeting dates for 2005: January 19 to March 26; May 10 to June 25; July 26 to September 10. Schedule for rotating CD presidency (liable to be changed) January 1 to February 15, Kenya; February 16 to March 14, Malaysia; March 15 to May 23, Mexico; May 24 to June 20, Mongolia; June 21 to August 15, Morocco; August 16 to December 31, Myanmar (Burma). Previous reports on the CD
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