CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC PLENARY OF 2015 SESSION ON 20 JANUARY

The Conference on Disarmament, the world's single multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will hold the first public plenary of its 2015 session on Tuesday, 20 January at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The session will open under the presidency of Mexico. The presidency of the Conference rotates among its Member States according to the English alphabetical order, with each president holding office for four working weeks. Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands and New Zealand will also hold the presidency during 2015. The three parts of the 2015 session of the Conference will take place from 19 January to 27 March for the first part; 25 May to 10 July for the second part; and 3 August to 18 September for the third part.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Michael Møller, Acting Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, as Acting Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament.

In accordance with art.27 of its rules of procedure, the Conference on Disarmament, shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of each annual session. “In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the United Nations General Assembly, the proposals presented by member States of the Conference, and the decisions of the Conference." The rules of procedure of the Conference also provide that, on the basis of its agenda, the Conference, “at the beginning of its annual session, shall establish its programme of work, which will include a schedule of its activities for that session, taking also into account the recommendations, proposals and decisions referred to in rule 27.”

At its sixty-ninth session, the General Assembly in resolution A/RES/69/76 on the report of the Conference called upon the Conference on Disarmament to further intensify
consultations and to explore possibilities for overcoming its ongoing deadlock of
well over a decade by adopting and implementing a balanced and comprehensive
programme of work at the earliest possible date during its 2015 session, bearing in
mind the decision on the programme of work adopted by the Conference on 29 May
2009, as well as other relevant present, past and future proposals. The resolution also recognizes the importance of continuing consultations in 2015 on the question of the expansion of the membership of the Conference on Disarmament.

Member States of the Conference

The 65 members of the Conference are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC15/001E