CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONCLUDES 2011 SESSION

The Conference on Disarmament, the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, concludes its 2011 session this week. The first plenary session began on 25 January and it officially ends on Friday 16 September.

Addressing the Conference on 26 January, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said the world was waiting for a "bold move" from the Conference and called on members to take collective action and to put aside their differences. He invited them to begin an informal process before agreeing to formal negotiations on a treaty banning production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.

The agenda adopted earlier in the session included seven issues: cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war including all matters related thereto; 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 such weapons; new types and systems of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, including radiological weapons; a comprehensive program of disarmament; and transparency in armaments. The agenda was adopted with the understanding that if a consensus emerged at the Conference to address any questions whatsoever, this issue could be addressed as part of this agenda.

In its annual report, which will be presented to the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations next week, the Conference on Disarmament showed, in particular, that despite the informal consultations convened by its successive presidents, it had not been possible to obtain a consensus on its programme of work. The report included a proposal for the mandate of a Rapporteur in order to broaden participation in the work of the Conference on Disarmament. To date, 25 countries have applied for membership in the Conference.


The three parts of the 2012 session of the Conference on Disarmament will be 23 January to 30 March, 14 May to 29 June and from 30 July to 14 September.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC11/046E