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For the latest coverage of UN First Committee, return to the main page on the UN and the CD
The 61st sessions of the UN First Committee and General Assembly took place from October to December 2006 at the UN in New York. Jennifer Nordstrom's report on behalf of the Acronym Institute can be read below.
The UN's official website on the General Assembly is at: http://www.un.org/ga/61/ and the site for the First Committee is at: http://www.un.org/ga/61/first/.
An index of all references made to issues of disarmament, peace and security during the General Assembly debates is available from Reaching Critical Will at:
Details of speeches from the First Committee are available from Reaching Critical Will at: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
The UN's official website on the General Assembly is at: http://www.un.org/ga/60/ and the site for the First Committee is at: http://www.un.org/ga/60/first/. In addition UN press releases covering the First Committee can be viewed at http://disarmament.un.org.
Information and full text of speeches from the First Committee can also be obtained from http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
Reporting from 2004 UN First Committee
The UN's official website on the General Assembly is at: http://www.un.org/ga/59/. In addition UN press releases covering the First Committee can be viewed at http://disarmament.un.org.
Information and full text of speeches from the First Committee can also be obtained from http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
The 59th session of the UN General Assembly held its general debate from September 21 - 30 with Jean Ping of Gabon in the chair.
See also:
A full report on the 2003 UN First Committee, along with summaries of resolutions and voting is available below.
Speeches and the full text of resolutions from the 58th session of the UN First
Committee are available at:
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/
1com/1com03/statementindex03.htm
The UN's official website on the First Committee is at: http://www.un.org/ga/58/first/. In addition UN press releases covering the First Committee can be viewed at http://disarmament.un.org.
Coverage includes:
The UN First Committee took place from October 2 - November 1, 2000.
Announcement of Security Assurances for Mongolia
The 1999 Session of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (Disarmament and International Security), chaired by Chilean Ambassador Raimundo Gonzalez, takes place in New York from Monday 11 October to Friday 12 November 1999. Coverage on this web site includes:
For full details and analysis, including summaries of the resolutions and voting, see Rebecca Johnson's report in Disarmament Diplomacy 32.
For full details and analysis, including summaries of the resolutions and voting, see Rebecca Johnson's report in Disarmament Diplomacy 20.
For a report and summary of the resolutions and votes, see Disarmament Diplomacy No 10.
The 2005 World Summit held from September 14 - 16 at the United Nations in New York was intended to bring together heads of state and government to make concrete progress on: development; peace and collective security; human rights and the rule of law; and strengthening of the United Nations.
However, in August, newly appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton introduced a raft of amendments aimed at diluting and eliminating commitments that the US does not like such as on aid, HIV/AIDS prevention, development, and non-proliferation and disarmament. The result was a watered down final agreement with the section on non-proliferation and disarmament dropped entirely.
Text of the section of the final agreement on Peace and Collective Security is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0509/doc08.htm.
See also:
For further information on the 2005 World Summit see:
The summit took place five years on from the adoption of the Millennium Declaration, which set out the Millennium Development Goals, along with objectives for the UN and for achieving a more peaceful, prosperous and just world in the 21st century.
The agenda for 2005 was based on proposals set out by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the report, 'In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for all', published on March 4, 2005. Sections on Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Weapons are available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0503/doc19.htm and the full text is available at: http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/.
In the run up to the summit, President of the UN General Assembly Jean Ping (of Gabon) has held a number of informal consultations with UN members and has published two draft 'outcome' documents for the summit. The draft published on August 5, 2005 is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0508/doc13.htm. The first draft, dated July 22, 2005 is available at: http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0507/doc06.htm. For a summary of changes between the first and second draft, see M+5 draft Outcome Document: How the new draft compares to the previous one, published by Reaching Critical Will.
In July, Norway presented a Proposal for the outcome document, endorsed by the governments of Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Norway, Romania, South Africa and the United Kingdom. This initiative calls for efforts to reinvigorate the multilateral framework for non-proliferation and disarmament, including "practical, systematic and progressive efforts to advance disarmament globally and reduce nuclear weapons towards achieving a world free of nuclear weapons". However, none of this text appears to have made it to the summit's final document.
On December 1, 2004, the report of the UN's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, 'A more secure world: our shared responsibility', was transmitted to the UN Secretary-General with recommendations concerning collective security, the role of the UN and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. See: Reviving The Disarmament Regimes: Recommendations of the High Level Panel and Secretary-General's Advisory Board, by Harald Müller, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.80, Autumn 2005.
On April 28, 2004 the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1540 (2004) on preventing Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, analysed in Disarmament Diplomacy No.79. The resolution was originally introduced into the Security Council by the United States, following President Bush's keynote speech on proliferation on February 11. The resolution focusses on measures to prevent illegal trafficking and proliferation of WMD to non-state actors (ie terrorists).
Following the adoption of Resolution 1540, a Committee has been set up to monitor its implementation. Implementing Resolution 1540: What the National Reports Indicate by Lars Olberg, provides a summary and overview of the first national reports on preventing non-state access to WMD materials and technology, as submitted to the 1540 Committee, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.82, Spring 2006.
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