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Unit 18The United Nations Disarmament MachineryChapter 3: Central Components
All chapters
  1. 0. A Message from the Author
  2. 1. Introduction
  3. 2. Constructing the Disarmament Machinery
  4. 3. Central Components
  5. 4. Supporting Bodies
  6. 5. Accomplishments and Shortcomings
  7. 6. The Disarmament Machinery and the European Union
  8. 7. Quiz
  9. 8. Summary and Further Reading
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Chapter 3

Central Components

This chapter covers the central components of the UN Disarmament Machinery: The UN Security Council, the UN Disarmament Commission, and the Conference on Disarmament.

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Central components of the UN Disarmament Machinery

EUNPDC, CC BY-NC 4.0.

The UN General Assembly First Committee (DISEC)

The UN General Assembly First Committee (sometimes referred to as the Disarmament and International Security Committee, DISEC, or C1) is one of the six main committees of the General Assembly. Its annual meeting in New York City is open to all members of the UN.

Every year the committee votes on roughly 50 resolutions or decisions to be adopted by the General Assembly. It also creates groups of governmental experts and open-ended working groups to address specific disarmament issues and convenes conferences for the negotiation and adoption of multilateral treaties.1

It focuses on seven thematic clusters:2

  1. Nuclear weapons
  2. Other weapons of mass destruction
  3. Outer space
  4. Conventional weapons
  5. Regional disarmament and security
  6. Other disarmament measures and international security
  7. Disarmament machinery

The Secretary-General of the UN (UNSG)

The secretary-general is the chief administrative officer of the UN and head of the UN Secretariat, one of its six principal organs. Though successive secretary-generals have interpreted their role in the UN system differently over the years, many have made significant contributions to the development of the UN’s disarmament regime through statements, reports, informal talks and activism.

António Guterres, who has held the office since 2017, developed an independent agenda titled Securing our Common Future seeking to ‘generate fresh perspectives and to explore areas where serious dialogue is required to bring disarmament back to the heart of our common efforts for peace and security.’

The UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC)

First formed 1952 and re-established by SSOD-I in 1978, The current iteration of UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) was established by SSOD-I in 1978 as a deliberative body designed to make recommendations on foundational issues related to disarmament to the General Assembly.

The UNDC only considers two items per year, one of which is always related to nuclear disarmament. It was unable to produce any substantial outcomes from 1999 to 2017, when it adopted a set of recommendations on confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons. The commission meets annually in New York City and is open to all members of the UN.

The Conference on Disarmament (CD)

Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill briefs the press after the second session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the Conference of Disarmament, Geneva. 27 August 2018.

UN Geneva / Violaine Martin, CC BY-NC-CD 2.0.

The Conference on Disarmament (CD)3, composed of 65 member states, was recognised by SSOD-I as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community. Many important arms control agreements were drafted by the conference, including the , the , the and the .

Though the conference is not formally a body of the UN, the conference submits regular reports on its activities to the General Assembly. It also receives organisational support from the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs.

The CD has a permanent agenda known as the Decalogue, named after the number of items it contained when it was drafted in 1979. It contains the following areas:

  1. Nuclear weapons in all aspects
  2. Other weapons of mass destruction
  3. Conventional weapons
  4. Comprehensive programme of disarmament
  5. Reduction of armed forces
  6. Reduction of military budgets
  7. Collateral measures, confidence building, effective verification methods
  8. Chemical weapons Removed after the adoption of the
  9. Disarmament and development
  10. Disarmament and international security

The Decalogue serves as a framework to set annual, narrower programmes of work. The current programme covers seven areas:4

  1. Cessation of the nuclear arms race, and nuclear disarmament
  2. Prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters
  3. Prevention of an arms race in outer space
  4. Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons
  5. New types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons
  6. Comprehensive programme of disarmament
  7. Transparency in armaments

The UN Security Council (UNSC)

The Security Council meets in a designated chamber in the UN Conference Building in New York City.

UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe, CC BY 4.0.

The UNSC is the only body of the UN with the power to adopt binding resolutions. It regularly uses this power to further the UN’s disarmament agenda.

Examples include UNSC Resolution 1540, a far-reaching instrument adopted in 2004 to address growing concerns about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-state actors. It requires member states to adopt national laws to prevent the spread of WMD, and imposes mandatory reporting mechanisms.

In 2009, a meeting chaired by President Barack Obama adopted Resolution 1887, which calls on all countries to sign and ratify the and the , and to refrain from conducting nuclear tests.

Many other resolutions on individual regional cases have also been adopted, including Resolution 687 on Iraq’s programme (1991), Resolution 1172 condemning Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests (1998), Resolution 2118 on Syria’s chemical weapons (2013), and Resolution 2231 on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015) on Iran’s nuclear programme. There are also numerous resolutions against North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles program.

Footnotes

  1. Disarmament and International Security (First Committee), General Assembly of the United Nations, www.un.org/en/ga/first ↩

  2. https://www.un.org/disarmament/institutions/disarmament-commission/ ↩

  3. The Conference on Disarmament changed its name at various points. 1960–62: Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, 1962–68: Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, 1968–78: Conference of the Committee on Disarmament. 1978–84: Committee on Disarmament ↩

  4. https://www.un.org/disarmament/update/un-disarmament-commission-adopts-by-consensus-practical-confidence-building-measures-in-the-field-of-conventional-weapons/ ↩

The EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament eLearning Course aims to cover all aspects of the EU non-proliferation and disarmament agenda. It's produced by PRIF with financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of individual learning units are the sole responsibility of the respective authors and don't necessariy reflect the position of the European Union.