CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HOLDS FIRST PART OF 2007 SESSION

The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will hold the first plenary of its 2007 session on Monday, 22 January, at the Palais des Nations.

The session will open under the presidency of Ambassador Glaudine Mtshali of South Africa. The presidency of the Conference rotates amongst its Member States according to the English alphabetical order; each President holds office for four working weeks. During 2007, the presidency of the Conference will also be held by Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and Syria. The three parts of the 2007 session will be held from 22 January to 30 March for the first part; 14 May to 29 June for the second part; and 30 July to 14 September for the third part.

In accordance with its rules of procedure, the Conference "shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of the session. In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the UN General Assembly, the proposals by its Members, and decisions of the Conference."

In 2006, the Conference was not able to reach agreement on a programme of work and so was unable to start work on substantive issues. However, in an effort to move forward, the Conference held focused structured debates on the Conference’s agenda items, namely on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments. The debates were based on the joint proposal of the six Presidents of the Conference for 2006.

The Conference’s annual report for 2006 to the General Assembly stated that with a view to commencing early substantive work during its 2007 session, the current President and the incoming President were requested to conduct consultations during the intersessional period and, if possible, make recommendations, taking into account all relevant proposals, views presented and discussions held.

The Conference on Disarmament works by consensus and cannot undertake new work without the agreement of all its Member States.

Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the Conference on 21 June 2006, saying that the United Nations of the 21st century was determined to move forward on three fronts simultaneously – security, development and human rights. The challenge of the Conference was to rise to the security part of that mission, and help ensure that security policies really did make the world safer and more peaceful -- not threatening whole societies with annihilation, but making human rights and development more attainable for all. Mr. Annan urged the Conference to put differences and well-rehearsed arguments behind it, and rise to the task, adding that if any single group had the collective power to wake the world up to the danger of increased nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism, it was 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 and Zimbabwe.

For use of the information media; not an official record

DC07001E