Draft annual report

Beatrice Fihn | Reaching Critical Will

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Tuesday, 27 August 2013 to discuss the first draft of the CD’s annual report to the General Assembly. The CD President introduced the report and comments were made by the delegations of Japan, Austria, Myanmar, Informal Group of Observer States (IGOS), Argentina, Germany, United States, Netherlands, Poland, Algeria, Iran, Canada, and Cuba.

Content of the draft

The draft report is a factual account of what took place during the year. It includes a reference to the statement by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 22 January, and notes his concerns over the continued deadlock.

It also gives an account of the different proposals for a programme of work that have been discussed during the year, including CD/1948, CD/1952, and CD/1955. It also reports on the draft decision taken to establish an informal working group through CD/1956/Rev.1.

The final version of the draft report will include a paragraph on the results of this informal group, but since it’s currently meeting, no conclusions have yet been drawn.

The draft report also has a section on “improved and effective functioning of the Conference, in which the Secretary-General of the Conference, Mr. Tokayev’s proposals are reflected. In addition, the report notes that Indonesia submitted a summary of a seminar on “exploring avenues to address the stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament,” and takes note of the Irish informal paper on “challenges and future direction”.

Under the section on communications from non-governmental organizations, the draft report notes that member states welcomed enhanced engagement of civil society and that delegations reaffirmed or further elaborated on their positions on interaction with civil society. This is a welcomed new paragraph, as previous reports to the General Assembly have not noted this fact before.

Reactions to the draft

While the CD President had requested comments to be made in writing, several delegations took the floor to give initial thoughts. Most were positive and commended the report for being “fair” and “factual”. Delegations including the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States highlighted that the CD’s credibility is not dependant on adopting a programme of work only, but on the ability to achieve substantive output. The Canadian ambassador appreciated the reflections of the draft programme of work, but emphasized that it must not be reflected as substantive work.

The Algerian representative wanted the report to mention the open-ended working group (OEWG) to take multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations forward, as he hoped that its work would have a positive impact on the CD.

The Iranian delegation wanted to avoid giving a negative view of the work of the CD. He argued that the three draft programmes of work presented throughout the year “showed how hard we have worked” and wanted it to be reflected. Iran believed that two paragraphs that discuss the deadlock (5 and 25) need “further refinement”. Also Cuba believed that these two paragraphs need amendment and will submit a written proposal to the CD President.

The informal group of observer states noted that during its 2013 session, the CD has not devoted any particular time to discuss membership expansion. Speaking on behalf of the group, the representative of the Czech Republic noted that rule 2 from the CD’s rules of procedure stipulates that membership of the CD should be regularly reviewed, and argued that this rule should be equally respected as the other rules. The group reiterated its call for an appointment of a special coordinator for membership expansion.

Informal working group

The informal working group that is tasked to develop “a programme of work robust in substance and progressive over time in implementation” under the chairmanship of Ambassador Gallegos from Ecuador met for the first time on Monday, 26 August. During the CD plenary meeting, most speakers welcomed this decision and hoped it would lead to a step forward for the CD. The informal working group will meet again on Monday, 2 September to continue its work.

Next meeting

The next plenary meeting will be held at 10:00 on 3 September in the Council Chamber.