Still waiting for action, the CD’s resources continue depleting

Beatrice Fihn | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) held a short meeting on Friday morning to hear a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Mr. Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, as well as the farewell speech from the Norwegian Deputy Representative, Ms. Hilde Skorpen, and a brief statement from the outgoing CD President, Ambassador Van Meewen of Belgium.

Brief highlights
The Foreign Minister of Ukraine said he considers the CD one of the world’s most important multilateral forums and that it is crucially important to achieve consensus on the 2010 programme of work as soon as possible. The Foreign Minister also shared Ukraine’s position on the core issues of the CD.

Ms. Hilde Skorpen from Norway made her final statement in the CD and took the opportunity to argue that the Conference should revisit the practice of regional groups.

Outgoing President, Ambassador Van Meewen from Belgium noted that the agreement on a detailed schedule of activities should allow the CD to continue its work in a positive and constructive way, and attributed this outcome to the success of the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Ukraine’s views on the CD agenda
Mr. Gryshchenko, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, highlighted his government’s commitment to get rid of all the stocks of highly enriched uranium and stated that this sent a clear message that Ukraine takes non-proliferation and disarmament seriously. He argued that Ukraine considered the Conference to be one of the world’s most important multilateral forums. As for making new achievements on the issues in front of the CD, he suggested that universality of the CTBT and the conclusion of a FMCT would be a tremendous step towards global nuclear disarmament. Mr. Gryshchenko also noted the need to develop a practical tool of ensuring negative security assurances, and called for the assurances outlined in UNSC resolution 984 to be reaffirmed in a multilateral legally-binding document. The Foreign Minister welcomed the draft treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space (PPWT), which was put forward by China and Russia in 2008, as a constructive initiative contributing to substantive discussions on this matter.

The state of the CD
In his final statement as outgoing president of the CD, Ambassador Van Meewen argued that after intensive discussions, he was happy to note that the CD had been able to agree on a detailed schedule of activities, and considered this important step to have been influenced from the success at the 2010 NPT Review Conference. Ambassador Van Meewen also reminded the CD of the call from the states parties of the NPT to start negotiations on a FMCT and argued that this call should not remain a dead letter.

However, in her farewell address, Ms. Hilde Skorpen of Norway said that she did not understand why an FMCT is the onlyissue considered ripe for negotiations. She stated that Norway considers nuclear disarmament to be the top priority. She also emphasized that it is vital that the humanitarian imperative is at the centre of the efforts in the CD. Recognizing that things looked pretty much the same as when she arrived in Geneva, Ms. Skorpen suggested that regional groupings might be part of the problem. She argued that sometimes states hide behind their groups. Noting that regional groupings do not exist in the rules of procedure, Ms. Skorpen suggested that the behaviour permitted by such groups prevents the issues from getting out in the open and being discussed and might prevent the CD delegations from finding compromises.

Notes from the gallery
During this week, the CD has held informal meetings on agenda items 1 and 2, mainly focusing on an FMCT. However, as many have said before, informal meetings can only take the Conference so far, and governments must really start finding ways to get the CD back to work. As the Brazilian delegation takes over the presidency next week, we hope that discussions on the programme of work continue to be discussed in a transparent way in plenary meetings, instead of in regional groups, where anonymous disagreement hinders real work.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and its Reaching Critical Will project would like to send a special thank you to Ms. Hilde Skorpen and the Norwegian delegation for their strong support of our work. She will be missed and we wish her all the best in her new position. We also appreciate that Ms. Skorpen took the opportunity in today’s meeting to emphasize the vital role that NGOs play in disarmament. As she pointed out, most NGOs are dependent on voluntary contributions to continue our work. If you use Reaching Critical Will’s resources and services regularly, we would greatly welcome a contribution in order to ensure that the project and our organization continues to operate as you’ve come to expect—and to further grow and improve. Please read more about donating on our site.

Next plenary meeting
The next plenary meeting will be held on Tuesday, 15 June at 10.00, when the CD will hear from the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs