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Unit 18The United Nations Disarmament MachineryChapter 2: Constructing the Disarmament Machinery
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 2

Constructing the Disarmament Machinery

From the Strasbourg Agreement to the 10th Special Session.

A brief history of disarmament

Humankind has always been disturbed by particularly cruel weapons of war. Throughout history, people have taken action to restrict or eliminate the use of such weapons.

  1. 1675

    Strasbourg Agreement

    Signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire following the Siege of Groningen (1672), this treaty was the first international agreement banning the use of chemical weapons, specifically poisoned bullets.

  2. 1863

    Lieber Code

    The Lieber Code (named after its author, the legal scholar Franz Lieber) was a set of instructions issued by Abraham Lincoln to Union soldiers in the American Civil War. Among other provisions, it prohibited the use of poison on the battlefield:

    Military necessity does not admit of cruelty, that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maining or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions. It does not admit of the use of poison in any way, nor of the wanton devastation of a district. […] in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult.

    United States War Department / Francis Lieber (1863), Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, p. 7

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  3. 1899-1907

    Hague Conferences

    The Hague Conferences held in 1899 and 1907 (following proposals by Tsar Nicholas II and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, respectively) led to the adoption of a series of treaties and declarations known as the Hague Conventions.

    Article 23 of the Convention on Laws and Customs of War on Land specifically prohibited the use of ‘poison or poisoned arms’ and ‘arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury’.1

    Specific declarations prohibiting poison gas munitions 2, expanding bullets 3, and balloon-based bombardment 4 were also adopted.

  4. 1920

    League of Nations

    The League of Nations was the first international organisation designed to achieve world peace, and is considered a precursor to the United Nations. Its members committed to reduce armaments ‘to the lowest point consistent with national safety and security’ 5 and negotiated a number of important treaties in the interwar period.

  5. 1925

    Geneva Protocol

    The Geneva Protocol, drafted and signed at a League of Nations conference, banned the use of chemical and biological weapons in war.

    The Undersigned Plenipotentiaries, in the name of their respective Governments:

    Whereas the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices, has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world; and

    Whereas the prohibition of such use has been declared in Treaties to which the majority of Powers of the world are Parties; and To the end that this prohibition shall be universally accepted as a part of International Law, binding alike the conscience and the practice of nations;

    Declare: That the High Contracting Parties, so far as they are not already Parties to Treaties prohibiting such use, accept this prohibition, agree to extend this prohibition to the use of bacteriological methods of warfare and agree to be bound as between themselves according to the terms of this declaration. […]

    Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. June 17, 1925.

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  6. 1932-37

    World Disarmament Conference

    The first World Disarmament Conference was convened by the League of Nations to counter global militarisation following the First World War. The conference did not produce a substantial outcome (partly due to technical disagreements about the definition of ‘offensive’ and ‘defensive’ weapons) and is generally seen as a failure.

  7. 1945

    United Nations established

    Representatives from 51 states establish the United Nations, defining disarmament and arms control as key missions of the organisation in its founding document, the UN Charter.6

The First Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD-I)

In addition to its annual sessions, the General Assembly of the UN occasionally holds special sessions on a single subject. The tenth special session (sometimes referred to as Special Session on Disarmament, or SSOD-I), held in 1978, was the first one solely focused on disarmament. Its final document is seen as the mission statement of the UN Disarmament Machinery:

[…] In adopting this Final Document, the States Members of the United Nations solemnly reaffirm their determination to work for general and complete disarmament and to make further collective efforts aimed at strengthening peace and international security; eliminating the threat of war, particularly nuclear war; implementing practical measures aimed at halting and reversing the arms race; strengthening the procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes; and reducing military expenditures and utilizing the resources thus released in a manner which will help to promote the well-being of all peoples and to improve the economic conditions of the developing countries.

Resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly during its 10th special session, 23 May-30 June 1978.

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SSOD-I also formally established some of the Disarmament Machinery’s central components, such as the Disarmament Commission and the Conference on Disarmament. Details on these institutions and various supporting bodies established after 1978 are covered in the following chapters.

Two more Special Sessions on disarmament were held in 1982 (SSOD-II) and 1988 (SSOD-III), but did not produce final documents. Discussions about a possible fourth Special Session on Disarmament have been ongoing since 2003.

Footnotes

  1. Convention with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land, art. 23, July 29, 1899. Available at avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/hague02.asp ↩

  2. Declaration on the Use of Projectiles the Object of Which is the Diffusion of Asphyxiating or Deleterious Gases; July 29, 1899, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/dec99-02.asp ↩

  3. Declaration on the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body; July 29, 1899 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/dec99-03.asp ↩

  4. Declaration on the Launching of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons, July 29, 1899, available at avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/dec99-01.asp ↩

  5. League of Nations Covenant art. 8, available at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp ↩

  6. United Nations Charter art. 11, 26, 47. ↩

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