The CD takes a decision!

Beatrice Fihn | Reaching Critical Will

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Friday afternoon and adopted a draft decision to set up an informal working group that will attempt to produce a programme of work.

The decision mandates a working group to “to produce a programme of work robust in substance and progressive over time in implementation.”

A first draft of the proposal was circulated on Tuesday, and a revised version was presented at the plenary today. The first draft appointed Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Gallegos Chiriboga as Chair and Australian Ambassador Peter Woolcott will be vice-Chair. However, after consultations with member states, the adopted decision states that the President of the CD will be Chair, but Ambassador Gallegos and Ambassador Woolcott will be co-Chair and vice-co-Chair, and will carry out the consultations on behalf of the CD President. 

The working group is open to members of the CD and observer states, but the mandate does not mention civil society participation or even if civil society will be able to attend the meetings of the working group.

The working group can continue its work in 2014 if it has not concluded its task at the end of the 2013 session. This is a welcomed change from the CD’s usual habit of having to re-adopt everything each year. However, the first draft stated that the working group “will resume” work in 2014, while the adopted one had been amended to “may resume”, signaling a reluctance from some states to agree to longer-term mandates.

Once the decision was adopted, several delegations used words such as “success”, “achievement”, and “important moment in the history of the CD”.

Some delegations, such as India and Iran, highlighted that this working group must not remove any responsibility of the CD President to attempt to reach agreement on a programme of work, and the delegation of India warned that this working group must not be a platform for re-opening old agreements and move the CD backwards. The US noted that “robust in substance and progressive over time in implementation” was open for interpretation, but for its delegation, it meant a negotiating mandate on a fissile material cut-off treaty. Switzerland welcomed the decision, and highlighted that this was only one of many suggestions from the CD’s Secretary-General, Mr. Tokayev. Ambassador Schmidt encouraged the CD to now consider Mr. Tokayev’s other proposals as well, in order to revitalize the CD.

While adopting anything is always a welcomed development in the CD, there is no need to cork up any champagne just yet. Basically, the CD has created a working group to negotiate something that didn’t use to need to negotiate during the days the CD worked. And member states are no closer to a programme of work that they were on Tuesday, when the latest draft failed. By having an informal working group with dedicated a co-chair and vice co-chair, work on a programme of work isn’t limited to a four-week period depending on an alphabetical ordered rotation of Presidents. This change could provide for some deeper discussions and negotiations around a programme of work.

But it doesn’t make up for the fact that it has become obvious that the 16 years of deadlock has significantly lowered the bar for what constitutes progress. The CD is supposed to negotiate and adopt disarmament treaties. Until it does that, it is still failing.