Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial transcript
Austria, Ambassador Christian Strohal
September 3, 2009

Thank you very much for the statement. I will certainly back to the report in a moment. I also will certainly come back to Fiona in a moment if I can put it that way. Is there any other speaker who would want to take the floor?

Let me mention two subjects that I would like to inform the conference on. One, of course, is the report and that has been circulated to you all yesterday and a copy is also available in this room. We will propose to proceed with the first reading immediately after the closure of the formal part of the plenary next Tuesday. There will be an informal plenary open to members and observers. If in the meantime any delegation would like to point out anything specific to my delegation, I would, of course, be grateful for any such contact.

The second point is to inform you about a request we have received from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to address the conference. I understand that the representative of this organisation will speak on behalf of the NGO committee for disarmament in Geneva, and that the NGO members of this committee are accredited to the UN. After having received this request we have consulted with the coordinators of the regional groups in accordance with the rules of procedure and in particular in accordance with in the decision which is contained in CD report 1744 of 2004 which states among other things that after the conference adopts a programme of work it will allocate an informal meeting per annual session to NGOs to address the conference. And also it goes on to say that such request will be considered at presidential consultations and thereafter at the formal plenary meeting of the conference with regard to the enhancement of engagement of civil society in the work of the conference.

That is the situation. As I have said we have consulted with regional coordinators and have made the list of the NGOs who are member of this committee available to them. What I would propose is that the regional coordinators come back to us with a final agreement in time so that we can agree to hold such an informal meeting immediately after adjourning the formal plenary next Tuesday thereafter so that before the end of this session we can have this informal session. If that is agreeable we will proceed like that.

And I would now want to say that the next formal plenary meeting of the conference will be held next Tuesday at 10 o’clock in this chamber, followed – as I said - by an informal plenary to consider the draft annual report to the General Assembly.

If there is no other delegation which would like to take the floor and before adjourning I want to – as I have said – come back to Fiona and want to thank her very much from also from this side of the room for her contribution, for her strong and always sound and good advice, always delivered with a smile and with a very helpful predisposition. The p6 of this year certainly have benefitted from the support and the handover from last year's p6 and certainly Fiona Patterson has been a very strong motor - if I can say so - in many of these activities as in many others.

So, we certainly regret to have to see her leave. This is part of our lives. We certainly wish you very well for your future and want t o see you back in this room one day.

Bon voyage! Thank you so much! This meeting is adjourned.