Today, the first plenary meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) is meeting in New York. The Commission has met for three weeks every April since it was established in 1978. This year marks the first year of new three year cycle—the 2006–2008 cycle ended without agreement after three unfruitful years of debate. So far today, the Commission is struggling to adopt its agenda for the new cycle.
The dispute is not over which items should be included. These have already been agreed upon as: a) elements for a draft resolution on the declaration of a fourth Disarmament Decade (this item was requested by the UN General Assembly) and the two agenda items from the previous Commission cycle—b) recommendations for achieving the objectives of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and c) practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons.
The stalemate over the agenda has arisen because states cannot agree to the order in which these topics will be addressed. The Non-Aligned Movement is reportedly urging for the first year of the Commission to focus on the elements for the draft declaration on the Disarmament Decade, in order to have these elements prepared before 2010. It’s unclear (to me) why others have opposed this suggestion, though it seems some have suggested establishing working groups for all three issues in all three years rather than working on and wrapping up one issue this year and then moving on to the other issues.
The first plenary meeting is currently suspended for informal consultations. Please check back later for updates.
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