CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT COMMEMORATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations Address Message to Conference; Member States Invited to Hold 2005 Summer Session in Hiroshima

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard statements from Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Serbia and Montenegro, Norway, Japan and Ireland, as well as a message addressed by women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Enrique Roman-Morey, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference, read out a statement from a group of women’s NGOs following their annual seminar to mark International Women’s Day (8 March). The NGOs said the Conference had the responsibility to demonstrate the vitality of the international disarmament regime as a way of strengthening the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Review process. One way to demonstrate that would be to officially adopt the Five Ambassadors’ proposal. The international community also needed to begin its work on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) and States should continue to extend their commitment to the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Norway expressed the hope that next year, the Conference would not have to hear the statement of the women’s NGOs through an intermediary. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Secretary General of the Conference, said the only reason that the NGOs did not address the meeting themselves was that one of the regional groups had not accepted this. Ireland supported Norway’s statement on giving civil society a role in the work of the Conference.

In national statements, Nigeria stated that priority should be given by the Conference to nuclear disarmament, as the most crucial initiative that could “eternally nail the coffin on the incubus of nuclear proliferation”. The five major nuclear powers, as permanent members of the Security Council, should recommit themselves to genuine nuclear disarmament. All the members of the Conference, as well as the international community as a whole, should achieve concrete progress on the programme of work of the Conference.

Malaysia extended to the Conference the invitation of the Mayor of Hiroshima to hold its 2005 summer session in that Japanese city to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Japan reiterated the strong desire of the Japanese people, including the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to ensure that the tragic experiences of nuclear devastation were never repeated in any part of the world for future generations and reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to ensuring nuclear disarmament.

On the issue of anti-personnel land mines, Thailand encouraged all parties concerned to do more in all aspects of mine action, particularly awareness raising and regional initiatives. Thailand would host a regional seminar in the second half of this year with the dual aims of promoting coordination in this field and raising the public profile of mine action, especially in a critical period leading right up to the First Review Conference.

Serbia and Montenegro said the problem of the rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration of the anti-personnel mine victims was especially more serious in the developing countries and countries in transition, such as Serbia and Montenegro. What was needed was very concerted collective action.

Ambassador Rajmah Hussain of Malaysia, the outgoing President of the Conference, said some broad trends which had revealed themselves during the open-ended informal consultations included that the proposal of the five ambassadors, as amended by Rev.1, enjoyed broad support but was considered as an evolutionary process towards a programme of work; the time to embark on a substantive programme of work was not ripe yet as some key delegations were still studying their positions; and mandates were a touchy issue and so was the issue of linkages.

The Conference approved a request by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to participate in the 2004 session of the Conference as an observer.

The President said that next Tuesday, 16 March, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Ireland and Sweden as well as the State Minister for Cabinet Affairs of Bangladesh will address the Conference starting 10 a.m. On Wednesday, 17 March, the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands will address the Conference at 11 a.m. And on Thursday, 18 March, the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka will address the Conference at 10 a.m.

The next plenary of the Conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 16 March.

Discussion

ENRIQUE ROMAN-MOREY, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, read out a statement by women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) following the annual seminar to mark International Women’s Day. He said the NGOs welcomed the decision of 12 February 2004 which officially acknowledged the relationship between the Conference on Disarmament and civil society. Since the end of the Second World War, there had not been a week without some conflict somewhere on the planet. “While the Cold War ended more than 10 years ago, the nuclear threat had reached another climax” the statement read.

More than three years had elapsed since the Security Council had adopted its historic resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. The statement recalled the Department of Disarmament Affairs’ gender plan, launched during last year’s UN Disarmament Commission’s meeting, which worked on the assumption that a shift towards a framework based on human security must begin with disarmament. The only way to ensure that no human beings, acting on behalf of a State, a group, or individually, would ever use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction was to see their “verifiable, transparent, and irreversible elimination”.

The Conference on Disarmament had the responsibility to demonstrate the vitality of the international disarmament regime as a way of strengthening the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Review process. One way to demonstrate that would be to officially adopt the Five Ambassadors’ proposal, the statement said. The international community should begin its work on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) and States should continue to extend their commitment to the prevention of an arms race in outer space. By starting work on the FMCT, a critical step would be taken “toward the safety and security of every single human being on earth”.

BIODUN OWOSENI (Nigeria) began by congratulating the women’s non-governmental organizations on their statement on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The G21 and other developing Member States, spearheaded by the Non-Aligned Movement, had risen to the challenges by assuming the responsibility of challenging global efforts towards multilateral disarmament. Threats such as poverty, underdevelopment in three-quarters of the world, terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, were among the new threats facing the international community. The only absolute guarantee against the use of weapons of mass destruction at any time was to eliminate them to save succeeding generations.

Nigeria believed that the Conference had no choice but to work harder, as a topmost priority, in achieving a Convention Prohibiting the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Nuclear Weapons and on their Destruction, as the most important goal assigned to the Conference on Disarmament by the First Special Session on Disarmament. This also explained why Nigeria believed that priority should be given by the Conference to nuclear disarmament, as the most crucial initiative that could “eternally nail the coffin on the incubus of nuclear proliferation”. The Ambassador called on the five major nuclear powers, as permanent members of the Security Council, to recommit themselves to genuine nuclear disarmament.

What was crucial, Ambassador Owoseni stated, was for all members of the Conference on Disarmament, as well as the international community as a whole, to reach a breakthrough and achieve concrete progress on the programme of work of the Conference. Consideration should also be given to extending the tenures of presidents to the Conference on Disarmament to, at least, two months in the future, in order to give reasonable time for consolidation of presidential efforts and initiatives. The Ambassador also welcomed the recent agreement on the enhanced participation of the NGOs in the Conference.

RAJMAH HUSSAIN (Malaysia), in a national statement, recalled that in August 2002, she had visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to deliver opening statements at the 2002 World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. While in Nagasaki, she had met with its Mayor, Iccho Itoh, who had extended an invitation to the Conference to come to the city to hold a meeting of the Conference. Recently, she had received another letter from Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima, inviting the Conference to hold its regular summer session in 2005 in Hiroshima since the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of the two cities would occur in August 2005. She thereby conveyed the invitation to the Conference.

Ambassador Hussain said that as Ambassadors to the Conference, the only multilateral negotiating forum for disarmament and therefore with the moral, legal and political responsibility to work towards disarmament, in particular nuclear disarmament, it was their duty to ensure that there would never be any more Hiroshimas or Nagasakis. She urged the Conference to go to the two cities to see and feel the horror of nuclear bombs and from there to find the inspiration to give greater meaning to their efforts in the Conference, where substantive progress had eluded its members so far. If moving the summer session to Hiroshima was technically too difficult, the Conference Ambassadors should at least try to visit the two cities.

CHAIYONG SATJIPANON (Thailand) recalled that 1 March this year had marked the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. This occasion was also a symbolic prelude to the Convention's First Review Conference to be held this year in Kenya. Thailand, as the President of the Fifth Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention, or the 5MSP, wished to highlight the strong points of the Convention which could contribute to the work of the Conference.

Ambassador Satjipanon said that the success of the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention was a direct result of the dynamic synergy between public and private actors who had worked closely together for the cause of putting an end to human suffering. In this regard, the Conference's recent decision to engage actors from civil society in its work was not merely a refreshing development but also a timely response to changes in a larger environment. Inclusiveness and synergy among relevant actors might be one important ingredient to the rapid progress of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. But behind them lay a more significant driving force that animated everyone to work untiringly towards the goal of a mine-free world in which all could live in full freedom from fear. The States parties bowed to the higher cause of putting an end to human suffering.

During the 5MSP, Thailand had highlighted the fact that the issue of banning anti-personnel mines should be considered in terms of development. Clearing mined lands equated to creating an enabling environment for leading lives free from fear and want. Since then, Thailand was pleased that progress had been made in its collective efforts with Canada and Norway in engaging the World Bank more closely with mine action. Thailand hoped that the discussion between the World Bank and a group of Resource Mobilization Task Force members would yield a fruitful result and further contribute to bringing mine action even closer to the issue of socio-economic development. Thailand had also encouraged all parties concerned to do more in all aspects of mine action, particularly awareness raising and regional initiatives. Thailand would host a regional seminar in the second half of this year with the dual aims of promoting coordination in this field and raising the public profile of mine action, especially in a critical period leading right up to the First Review Conference. It felt an urgent need to promote political will and public awareness in countries in Asia, where less than 40 per cent of States had joined the Convention.

DUSANKA DIVJAK-TOMIC (Serbia and Montenegro) said that her country found it useful to bring updates on the relevant standpoints and activities of the Member States regarding disarmament and the related issues before the Conference. Serbia and Montenegro believed that the more transparency and exchange of information in this field, the more it contributed to the enhancement of mutual confidence and promotion of peace and stability in the world.

Concerning the Ottawa Landmine Ban Convention, Ms. Divjak-Tomic said that Serbia and Montenegro had formally acceded to the Convention on 18 September 2003, and that its obligations under the Convention were due on 31 March. When Serbia and Montenegro, Greece and Turkey had joined the Convention in 2003, the entire region of south-eastern Europe had proved its full commitment to free their people of the scourge of anti-personnel mines. Her country had lately made a significant break-through on this issue. It was obliged to destroy about 1.3 million anti-personnel mines within a relatively short time limit. It deemed it realistic to fulfil this task in three years, provided the necessary resources were obtained. Serbia and Montenegro counted greatly on international assistance on this issue. Though not easy, the problem of the destruction of the stockpile would be solved somehow. However, her worry was how to find an efficient way to ease the human suffering of thousands of victims of anti-personnel mines and their families throughout the world. This was by far a more important and complex obligation to fulfil. The problem of the rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration of the anti-personnel mine victims was even more serious in the developing countries and countries in transition, like Serbia and Montenegro. What was needed was very concerted collective action.

With regards to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Serbia and Montenegro was firmly committed to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and actively participated in international efforts to suppress it. It considered that a strict national control regime was of particular importance. Serbia and Montenegro had started the process of working out a new stricter legal control regime that took into account the current negative trends both at the global and at the regional levels.

In conclusion, Ms. Divjak-Tomic said that ever since the political changes in Serbia and Montenegro in 2000, it had started the process of comprehensive democratic reforms, including the reform of the military and security sector. It was also working on the new defense strategy and military doctrine, in accordance with the new security environment both in the country and in the region. The country was firmly convicted that each of the measures and activities which it had been taking had an important positive impact on enhancing the overall stability of the region.

SVERRE BERGH JOHANSEN (Norway) said it was the hope of his delegation that next year, a representative of civil society could address the Conference on Disarmament directly, and not through an intermediary, and reaffirmed Norway’s support for appropriate civil society participation in all multilateral fora, including the Conference on Disarmament.

SERGEI ORDZHONIKIDZE, the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the Conference took due note of what Norway had just said. This year, one of the regional groups had not been willing to give it’s agreement to have the women's non-governmental organizations read out the statement themselves in public. That was the only reason that Mr. Roman-Mora had read the statement out as an intermediary. With the help of the Member States, he hoped that this was the last time that the Conference would have to use an intermediary to hear women's NGOs in the future.

KUNIKO INOGUCHI (Japan) said that concerning what the Ambassador of Malaysia had spoken about and the letters sent to her, she wished to reiterate the strong desire of the people of Japan, including the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to ensure that the tragic experiences of nuclear devastation were never repeated in any part of the world for future generations. Japan was working to ensure nuclear disarmament. Among other steps, it was making patient efforts to request the Conference to start negotiations on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT). It had also shown tireless commitment to promote an early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Japan believed that the sixtieth anniversary was an important occurrence to renew the determination of the world that this devastation was never repeated. Japan would listen carefully to the reaction of the Conference. As the Ambassador of Malaysia had suggested, visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki would provide further background, knowledge and insight in the issues that the Conference had to deal with.

MARY WHELAN (Ireland) supported the statement of Norway on the role of civil society and recognized the step forward made under the previous Chairman.

RAJMAH HUSSAIN (Malaysia), speaking as outgoing President of the Conference, reflected on the past four weeks during which Malaysia had been in the driving seat to seer the work of the Conference forward. She had started her first week of the Presidency by consulting with key delegations on the proposal to establish subsidiary bodies in the Conference with a discussion mandate. She had soon discovered that the substantive gaps between the delegations were too wide to be bridged at the present moment, given the sensitivities pertaining to the number of subsidiary bodies to be established and the type of mandates for each respective body. The Presidential consultations were not altogether fruitless for it was during these discussions that the idea was born for convening an informal plenary session on the programme of work of the Conference which had eluded its members for seven years and which was the main reason for the stalemate in the Conference. This was notwithstanding the proposal of the five ambassadors (A5) which was currently the only proposal on the table for a programme of work, and which had received broad support but upon which key delegations had yet to pronounce their position. She had also discovered that there was a lot of mistrust and misunderstanding between delegations and between groups on each other’s position.

Ambassador Hussain said that 31 delegations had taken the floor at the open-ended informal consultations. Some broad trends which had revealed themselves during these consultations included that the A5 proposal, as amended by Rev.1, enjoyed broad support but was considered as an evolutionary process towards a programme of work; the time to embark on a substantive programme of work was not ripe yet as some key delegations were still studying their positions; and mandates were a touchy issue and so was the issue of linkages. The President noted that delegations were not opposed to having informal plenaries on agenda items that might help to bring the process forward. Due recognition had been given to the role of the President in moving the process forward in the search for a programme of work for the Conference that was balanced and acceptable to all. The President had been urged to seek initiatives in this regard, including drawing up a suitable timetable and finding the right mechanism for a work programme, within the mandate entrusted upon him/her under the rules of procedure of the Conference. She said she would continue working with incoming Presidents of the Conference to move the process forward in formulating an interim work programme, pending the adoption of a final programme of work which had to take account of the decisions to be made by key capitals.

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