29 June 2006
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) closed its second session of 2006 at its June 29 Plenary Meeting. The meeting was also the first of the Senegalese presidency under Ambassador Ousmane Camara. This plenary meeting was devoted to general debate, but comments focused on increasing civil society participation in the CD and the upcoming final CD session, which will debate Negative Security Assurances.
Program of Work
As the CD has now begun to discuss substance, Ambassador Rivasseau of France encouraged the CD to continue this progress, and suggested the CD call its current scheduled activities a “program of work”.
Ireland agreed, ”If it feels like work and sounds like work maybe we should call it work.”
Civil Society and the Conference on Disarmament
Ireland, who introduced the 2004 decision about civil society participation in the CD, recommended increasing this participation to match that of other UN institutions. Ambassador Whelan quoted the Irish Foreign Minister's 2004 CD address: ”I find it hard to believe how a body charged with a mandate of such relevance to human kind and drawing its funding from the United Nations can continue to effectively exclude Civil Society from a meaningful role in its deliberations.”
The 2004 decision gives one informal plenary meeting per annual session to NGOs once the CD adopts a program of work. Ireland and France both noted that this has not yet been used because the CD does not have a formal program of work. However, if the Conference considers its current substantive discussions 'work', it should invite NGO participation this year. ”I don’t think the roof would fall in if it happened,” said Ambassador Whelan.
When France called NGO participation questions procedural, Ireland responded that it was more than a procedural issue, but ”an issue of a democratization of decision processes of United Nations system or those funded by that system."
Ireland questioned how the Friends of the Presidents arrived at the findings about civil society (paragraphs 15-17) involvement in the CD in their June 1 mid-term report, and encouraged them to take a more active approach. Ireland offered to meet with the friends and explore how this could be done, and Italy, one of the Friends, declared they were willing to meet with other delegations for consultations.
New Zealand agreed the CD should have similar rules for NGO participation as other international forums, and asked states with reservations to have an open exchange about it so their concerns could be addressed and the matter resolved.
The Secretary General of the CD thanked Ambassador Whelan for bringing up this important issue, and recognized there is a huge gap between the CD and other international fora in terms of civil society engagement. He asked Ireland to circulate their statement so the Conference could seriously consider the matter, to which Ireland agreed.
The Upcoming Third Session:
Negative Security Assurances and a Comprehensive Program of Disarmament
Senegal outlined the timetable for the upcoming third session of the CD in their opening statement as president of the Conference. Their presidency will include debates on an ”Effective international arrangement to assure Non-Nuclear Weapons States against the threat of use of nuclear weapons” (Negative Security Assurances), starting on August 3, and on a ”Comprehensive Program of Disarmament” starting on August 10. Senegal encouraged delegations to bring experts from capitals to enrich the debates with technical expertise. Delegations should address scope and definitions at the August 3 meeting.
Senegal supported an international legally binding instrument for Negative Security Assurances (NSAs) to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime. Argentina called the NPT the appropriate framework for creating an international legally binding instrument for NSAs.
Argentina called on nuclear weapon states to grant more effective assurances to not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.
Fissile Materials and Terrorism
In light of the threat of terrorist use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Romania called for the immediate start of negotiations on a Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty. According to Romania, the negotiations would not be easy and would take time, but this is a part of the process and there is no need to solve everything before starting.
Russia thanked members of the Conference for their sympathy regarding the murder of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, and said the conditions in Iraq are not improving. While they too are concerned that terrorists could acquire weapons of mass destruction, they think it will be more effective to first talk about how to get rid of the conditions that create terrorism.
Next Session
The next plenary meeting of the conference will be held on Thursday, August 3, opening the third and final session and debate on Negative Security Assurances, addressing scope and definitions.
-Jennifer Nordstrom, Reaching Critical Will and
Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom