United Nations (UN)

First Committee Update No. 1, October 21: A Review of the General Debate

By Fiona Simpson

Note: this update provides an overview of themes and issues raised in the General Debate; analysis of individual resolutions and decisions will follow as the Committee completes its deliberations.

The General Debate: Cautious Optimism, Widespread Concern

Last year, the UN First Committee met in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Although more than a year has now passed, the events of September 11 once again permeated the Committee's General Debate (September 30-October 10). Terrorism, thematically speaking, made an appearance in nearly all the 91 statements - in particular, the nightmare scenario of terrorist acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a threat powerfully addressed at the outset of the debate by the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala.

Of perhaps greater significance, however, was the palpable concern that, in the desire to prevent WMD from falling into the hands of terrorists, international regimes, institutions and the underlying tenets of multilateralism itself were in danger of being sacrificed on the altar of what might be termed 'selective unilateralism' - a willingness to exercise arbitrary military might and political pressure when frustrations arise in the multilateral sphere. Numerous delegations were thus careful to emphasise their conviction that multilateralism provided the best framework for confronting these issues, and to warn of the dangerous contradiction between support, on the one hand, for non-proliferation regimes and, on the other, for unilateral solutions to the problems facing these regimes.

There was, equally, recognition that the situation was not completely gloomy and that some important headway had been made. Cuba's decision, announced at the General Assembly on September 14, to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and ratify the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco), was welcomed by almost every delegation. Notable exceptions were the United States, and those three states - Israel, India and Pakistan - who continue to remain outside the NPT, and who were naturally subjected to a fresh barrage of exhortation urging them to join. Also in the nuclear arena, many delegations welcomed the reductions set out in the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (Moscow Treaty), signed by Russia and the US in May this year, while generally also adverting to concerns that the agreement does not adequately address issues of transparency, irreversibility or verification.

The first Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2005 NPT Review Conference, held in New York in April this year, was generally welcomed as a success, while general applause also greeted the news - breaking as the General Debate opened on September 30 - that agreement had been reached by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on the establishment of a Central Asian Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone (CANWFZ). Elsewhere, the Programme of Action to tackle the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons (SALW), adopted at the landmark UN Conference in July 2001, continued to be seen as an encouraging step. A sense of tentative optimism also reigned regarding prospects for the effective future functioning of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), now that the tumultuous difficulties of the previous year, which culminated in the dismissal of the Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat, appear to have been resolved.

Nonetheless, it was generally accepted that, however welcome such progress was, it could not conceal or compensate for an alarming degree of stalemate and impasse in other areas. The Thirteen Steps on nuclear disarmament - whose agreement had allowed for the successful conclusion of the 2000 NPT Review Conference - remain far from being implemented. The Conference on Disarmament (CD) remains mired in disagreement over its programme of work, thus preventing negotiations on a Fissile Material (Cut-Off) Treaty (FM(C)T). Prospects for bringing the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force remain elusive, due to the refusal - much lamented in the debate - of thirteen key states to ratify. In the wake of fears that nuclear weapons were not only being retained but, in at least one case, were actually being elevated as a key element of strategic doctrine, such calls for a rally to the banner of nuclear disarmament appeared to be made with little confidence they would prompt the desired response. The United States delegation, however, took the opportunity to assert that the end of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty had not plunged the world into an arms race, as had been widely anticipated, and that the Treaty of Moscow not only demonstrated this fact but also constituted a significant step in accordance with American and Russian disarmament obligations under Article VI of the NPT.

Although the draft resolutions have only just been put forward, and are to be debated between October 14-25, it is worth noting a narrowing of the political discrepancies between the non-proliferation-focused nuclear disarmament resolution introduced by Japan (and co-sponsored by Australia) and a resolution on the same theme submitted by Ireland on behalf of the New Agenda Coalition (the NAC, also known as the New Agenda, established in 1998 and consisting of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden). In addition, support for the resolution introduced once again by Myanmar (Burma) - simply entitled "Nuclear disarmament" - seems likely to be limited in the main to states from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

An issue fast emerging in recent years - the need to avoid an arms race in outer space - was alluded to by many delegations, and appears for the first time in the New Agenda resolution. It would, however, be premature to say it has yet entered into mainstream diplomatic consciousness as an urgent matter requiring more multilateral attention than that provided by the annual, somewhat ritual resolution urging the establishment of an ad hoc committee at the CD under the agenda item on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS).

The Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions (CWC and BWC) also inspired comment. In both cases, their lack of universality was regretted, and the collapse of efforts to negotiate a verification and compliance protocol for the BWC was widely cited as a major concern, requiring urgent remedial action. The upcoming resumption of the Fifth BWC Review Conference was thus seen as a vital opportunity to restart meaningful discussions on strengthening the Convention - and, in the process, as one delegation noted, to reinforce the multilateral character of disarmament and non-proliferation.

The subject of conventional weapons was approached with a cautious optimism, at least relative to the discontent which infused the discussion of WMD. It was noted several times that illicit SALW are responsible for many thousands of deaths yearly, particularly in developing countries, as well as forming a major link in the international chain of terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime. The implementation of the Programme of Action was therefore identified - perhaps most forcefully by the South African delegation - as evidence of growing political will to address this problem. In addition, the expanding membership of the Ottawa Landmines Convention was viewed as an indication that the norm against these weapons was becoming ingrained and likely to prove - given ongoing support and effective implementation - irreversible.

In parallel with the formal work of the First Committee the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs has been hosting a series of seminars and panel discussions featuring governmental and non-governmental speakers. These have included consideration of 'Disarmament in Conflict Resolution' (October 1), 'The Impact of 11 September 2001 on the Disarmament Agenda for the 21st Century' (October 3), 'The Outer Space Treaty at Thirty-Five' (October 14), the 'Tenth Anniversary of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms' (October 15), and also, importantly, a high level launch of the 'UN Study on Disarmament Non-Proliferation Education' (October 9).

Fiona Simpson, a recent doctoral graduate in non-proliferation and international relations, is attending the 2002 annual session of the UN First Committee on behalf of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy. A comprehensive analysis of the session, with voting figures from both the First Committee and the General Assembly will be published in Disarmament Diplomacy No. 68 (December 2002).

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© 2002 The Acronym Institute.