Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International
Affairs
Of the Islamic
In his capacity as the Chairman
of the United Nations Disarmament Commission
to the First Committee of the General Assembly, NY
Mr. Chairman,
Let me start Mr. Chairman, by congratulating your assumption of the Chairmanship of this important Committee of the General Assembly. Your vast experience in the area of disarmament is an asset for this committee this year to conclude its work with great success.
I would like to add here also my sincere thanks and
appreciation to Mr. Dhanapala, under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs,
whose dedication has been a great help for us to achieve best results in our
endeavors.
In my capacity as the Chairman of the United Nations
Disarmament Commission, I am delighted to present the report of the 2000
Session of the Commission to this body under your Chairmanship.
Mr.
Chairman,
The most compelling security question in the new era of international relations is to define and establish a global security scheme, which preserves and ensures the national security of all states. Disarmament in this context plays a more prominent and ever-increasing role. The United Nations Disarmament Commission in the new international environment in post-cold war era has played an important role in consolidating and ensuring the contribution of the Member States of the United Nations in the field of disarmament.
The UNDC furthermore as the universal disarmament body with the full participation of all member states is an important machinery within the United Nations system, expected to contribute in further defining the general structure of such a new security posture at the regional as well as international levels.
In this respect and taking into consideration the
priorities of the international community, as set forth by the recommendations
and decisions adopted by the major disarmament bodies, particularly the General
Assembly resolutions, the Commission has set forth a program of work to respond
to such a demand.
The elimination of nuclear weapons here is definitely
amongst our high priorities in the disarmament and international security
agenda. Numerous calls have been made in
the resolutions of the General Assembly and other relevant bodies to commence
discussions and deliberations on advancing nuclear disarmament.
The UNDC in this spirit extensively considered its
commencement of deliberations on nuclear disarmament as a priority, and I
should testify here, as the Chairman of this Commission, that all members were
sincere and worked very hard in exploring all the possibilities to enable to
Commission to start these deliberations on such crucial issue. The Commission therefore in a spirit of
cooperation and compromise succeeded, for the first time in its history, to
include the item “ways and means to achieve nuclear disarmament” in its
agenda. The Commission has been able
before to consider other issues within the umbrella of nuclear disarmament, but
this time, the Commission, in such a new international environment, could agree
to consider nuclear disarmament more directly and in its broad context.
The commission furthermore agreed as its second agenda
item the question of “Practical confidence-building measures in the field of
conventional arms” which is again an area of high importance in the disarmament
and international security agenda.
I am happy to report, Mr. Chairman, that the
deliberations of the Commission this year, as the first session on these two
agenda items, were quite comprehensive and the report of the Commission was
adopted by consensus. With your
permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce general outline of the
report of the 2000 Session of the Commission.
Mr.
Chairman,
The report of the Commission for its 2000 session
(document A/55/42), as in the previous years, consists of four chapters and
annex, containing the results of the deliberations on two agenda items during
2000 substantive session. The first
three chapters include the introduction, the organizational part and the list
of documents. Chapter IV “Conclusions
and recommendations”, covers two consensus reports of the Working Groups on
item 4, entitled “Ways and means to achieve the nuclear disarmament”, and item
5 on “Practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional
arms”, as well as the status of deliberations that the Commission was able to
achieve on both issues under discussion.
Annex sets out the report of Working Group I.
The Disarmament Commission organized its 2000 session
in accordance with the mandate set forth in paragraph 118 of the Final Document
of the First Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament
held in 1978, the guidelines established by the reform program entitled “Ways
and means to enhance the functioning of the Disarmament Commission”, which was
unanimously adopted by the Commission in 1990, as well as the decision 52/492
adopted under the rationalization of the work of the Disarmament Commission at
the resumed session of the First Committee in 1998.
In accordance with the latter decision and starting
from the year 2000, the Disarmament Commission was supposed to consider, in
principle, two substantive agenda items, one of them specifically dedicated to
nuclear disarmament. However, the
Commission can add a third item on an exceptional basis. In the course of the last year’s
organizational session, the Commission agreed on a two-item approach, namely
“Ways and means to achieve nuclear disarmament” and “Practical
confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms”.
The consideration of item 4 has clearly demonstrated
that the decision to introduce the “Ways and means to achieve nuclear
disarmament” in the UNDC agenda was timely.
In the course of two meetings devoted to the General discussion,
delegations made comments on a wide variety of nuclear disarmament and related
international security issues, expressed their concern over the emerging trends
and presented concrete ideas and proposals.
Based on those deliberations, the Chairman of the
Working Group was able to submit his working paper, which took into
consideration written, and oral submissions, as well as comments by delegations
on his first draft. The Chairman’s paper
is his sole responsibility and does not represent a negotiated position. However, it is duly noted that Chairman’s
paper is a good basis for further consensus building. I wish to express to the distinguished
Chairman of the Working Group I as well as member-states my appreciation in
achieving this goal.
With regard to item 5 on practical confidence-building
measures in the field of conventional arms, deliberations, as candid and
intellectually challenging as they were, did not lead to the agreement on
annexing the Chairman’s paper to the Commission’s report. The States have demonstrated flexibility and
were ready to work toward an agreement on this issue. However, in the end the differences could not
be fully reconciled.
I hope that the inability to agree on annexing the
Chairman’s paper will in no way hinder the beginning of the substantive
discussion of the item at the forthcoming session. Neither will it make void the positive
elements of last year’s deliberations on the item. It is also heartening to note that the
Chairperson of the Working Group intends to continue her informal consultations
with Member-States during the inter-sessional period. I wish her success in this endeavor.
Finally, I would once again like to express my
gratitude to all delegations for their understanding and support. A special tribute should be paid to the
Vice-Chairman and the Rapporteur of the Commission, as well as to the Chairman
of the two Working Groups, for their imaginative and creative approach to the
tasks entrusted upon them by the Commission.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the
Under-Secretary-General Jin Yongjin and Under-Secretary-General Jayantha
Dhanapala and the Department of General Assembly Affairs and Conference
Services and Department for Disarmament Affairs respectively for their valuable
assistance, and the Secretary of the Disarmament Commission, Mr. Timur
Alasaniya as well as his colleagues serving as secretaries of other Working
Group. On behalf of the Commission, I
express my sincere appreciation to all other members of the Secretariat who
assisted the Commission in carrying out its task.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I present the annual
report of the United Nations Disarmament Commission as contained in document
A/55/54.
Thank
you, Mr. Chairman
Statement introducing draft resolution A/C.1/55/L26
At the First Committee
As the Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament
Commission for the 2000 session and on behalf of the co-sponsors, who are
traditionally members of the expanded Bureau of the Commission, it is my
distinct pleasure to introduce draft resolution A/C.1/55/L26, entitled “Report
of the Disarmament Commission”.
This draft is the result of open-ended informal
consultations among members of the Disarmament Commission. It has been prepared in a manner similar to
that of previous resolutions regarding the Disarmament Commission, with only
certain appropriate changes in the text as circumstances warrant. In this respect paragraphs 3 and 4 of last
year’s resolution were deleted from the text of proposed draft since the issue
of further rationalization of the Commission’s work was not addressed this
year.
Paragraph 5 of the draft refers to the two new agenda
item, namely “Ways and means to achieve nuclear disarmament” and “Practical
confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms”.
On the question of duration of the session of the
Commission, as delegations remembers, in its resolution 54/56 A, the Commission
decided to hold UNDC sessions for a period not exceeding three weeks, according
to 1998 decision on rationalization of the work of the Commission. However, the year 2000 turned out to be
extremely busy with disarmament-related events.
In effort to accommodate many conflicting meetings and conferences and
also taking into consideration that both agenda items were in its initial year
of deliberations, it was agreed, on an exceptional basis and without creating
any precedents for the future work of the Commission, to reduce 2000
substantive session to two weeks. In the
present draft, Paragraph 6 reverts back to a normal practice of having
three-week substantive sessions of the Commission.
Now allow me to say a few words about the organization
of work of the Commission this year. Due
to unusually late start, two during the session coincided with official United
Nations holidays. If you add to that two
meeting devoted to general debate you’ll see that in practice, the Chairmen of
the two Working Groups were limited to five meetings during which the Groups were
supposed to conduct a meaningful exchange on complex issues at hand and come up
with a first draft. I am pleased to
report to the First Committee that both Groups met the challenge. I will be remiss if I don’t express my
gratitude to both chairmen for their valiant efforts. I wish also to commend delegations for their
constructive and businesslike approach.
Let me conclude Mr. Chairman, by expressing my hope
for the success of the Commission’s deliberations during the forthcoming
session in 2001. The previous session
has laid down a solid foundation, which makes the further consensus-building
process focused and more target-oriented.
I hope that draft resolution A/C.1/54/L26 will again enjoy a consensus support as in the previous years.