ACRONYM Reports

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: The Endgame

ACRONYM Report No.9, April 1996

Appendix I: The CD

The membership of the CD was established at 38 in 1978, but is now counted as 37. The members became organised into three groupings during the Cold War, which are now less relevant to states' real interests and alliances. However, appointments and consultations are still on the basis of group membership.

Sweden (which left the G-21 in 1993) and China are outside any of the groups, although Sweden is a member of the European Union, and so is close to the Western Group.

Yugoslavia no longer sits in the CD, although it has not been officially suspended.

Group of Western States and Others: Argentina*, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, UK and USA.

Group of Eastern European States and Others: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation.

G-21 Group of Non-Aligned States: Algeria, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia**, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Zaire.

* Argentina transferred from the G-21 to the Western Group.

** Mongolia transferred from the Eastern Group to the G-21.

Other Items on the CD Agenda

In 1994, the CD had undertaken several tasks on its agenda in addition to prioritising CTBT negotiations. Ad hoc committees had been established - though with no negotiating powers - to discuss transparency in armaments (TIA), negative security assurances (NSA) and prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS). None of these committees was able to be established in 1995 because members of the western group and G-21 linked the establishment of one with that of all. The same problem is besetting the CD in 1996.

During 1994 consultations had been undertaken on establishing a ban on the production of fissionable materials for weapons purposes (Fissban - or 'Cut-Off' if only a halt to future production is intended). After considerable debate over whether fissile material stockpiles should be considered during negotiations on the Fissban, a mandate was finally agreed on March 24, 1995. This skirted around the issue. The core mandate referred only to a ban on production of fissile materials, but the report of Ambassador Gerald Shannon of Canada, which was adopted as part of the same decision, acknowledged the desire of some states to consider 'past production', and stated that the mandate for establishing the committee 'does not preclude any delegation from raising for consideration...any of the above noted issues.' With this compromise, the mandate was agreed, but the Fissban Committee has never been convened. In addition to disagreements over whether stocks of fissile materials are part of the mandate or not, the Fissban Committee also came to be linked with the establishment of other committees, and so subject to the same impasse.

Early in 1996, India attempted to link the reconvening of the Nuclear Test Ban Committee with establishment of an ad hoc Committee on Nuclear Disarmament, which is opposed by at least three of the nuclear weapon states. Because of opposition from the rest of the G-21 to linkage which might delay the resumption of the test ban negotiations, India dropped its attempt. However, the G-21 have issued several statements calling for a Nuclear Disarmament Committee as a priority. Yet again, all committees under other items of the CD agenda have been prevented from convening. While this may be useful in ensuring that the CTBT negotiations have undivided attention, it is a sign of a deep dysfunction within the Conference on Disarmament.

Expansion

The need to expand the membership so that it reflects a better balance of political and regional interests has been emphasised many times, but the CD has not been successful in deciding how to do this. On the penultimate day of the 1995 session, Ambassador Benjelloun-Touimi of Morocco, the CD President, managed to get agreement on a two-stage expansion decision. In the first stage, the CD finally accepted the 1993 report by Ambassador Paul O'Sullivan of Australia, which had recommended membership for a list of 23 countries (see below). Because of continued objections by the United States to one name on the list - Iraq - admission of the 23 states was to be delayed pending a further decision 'at the earliest possible date'. Despite the attempts by members and observers to raise the issue, no further progress has been made. While observers, including the members-in-waiting, can participate in negotiations and submit proposals and papers, they have no right to be consulted and are not counted in consensus since they have no power to register a veto. The crux of the US objection is that no state which is subject to 'comprehensive enforcement measures taken by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter' -- i.e. sanctions, should have the right to deny consensus. The 23 countries want to be admitted together, and some CD members are adamant that a precedent should not be set whereby a decision of the UN Security Council can be used to deny a CD member the full exercise of its rights in the Conference. The issue is consequently still deadlocked.

A further 12 states had applied for membership of the CD but were not even included in the O'Sullivan list. The decision adopted on September 21 merely promised that their status would be 'reviewed at regular intervals'. In a further injustice, Slovakia has been denied Czechoslovakia' s seat, which fell vacant when that country dissolved, despite agreement between the Czech and Slovak Republics on how seats in various bodies should be shared among them.

The O'Sullivan list of 23 states identified for new membership: Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Finland, Iraq, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe.

Dates for the 1996 CD Session:

22 January - 29 March

13 May - 28 June

29 July - 13 September

© 1996 The Acronym Institute.