United Nations (UN)

UN First Committee and General Assembly, Acronym Institute Coverage, 1996 - 2006

For the latest coverage of UN First Committee, return to the main page on the UN and the CD

UN First Committee and General Assembly, 62nd Sessions, 2007

• Stagnation and Redundancy: Report on the 2007 UN First Committee, by Michael Spies, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.87, Spring 2008, including:

  • 2007 First Committee Resolutions, Summary and Explanations
  First Committee Monitor from Reaching Critical Will

UN First Committee and General Assembly, 61st Sessions, September - December 2006

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.

• Cooperation and Cautious Optimism: Report on the 2006 UN First Committee
  by Jennifer Nordstrom
  A comprehensive report on the UN's annual disarmament and security deliberations, with a detailed summary of all resolutions and votes in the 61st First Committee and General Assembly.
  

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:

• http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/1com/1comindex2.html#2007

Details of speeches from the First Committee are available from Reaching Critical Will at: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org.

UN First Committee and General Assembly, 60th Sessions, September - December 2005

2005 UN First Committee Report

• Enhanced Participation and Politicking: Report on the 2005 UN First Committee, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.81, Winter 2005, including: 2005 First Committee Resolutions: Summary and Explanations

Updates from New York

• UN First Committee, Sombre and Divided, by Rebecca Johnson, November 1, 2005
• UN First Committee Update, by Rebecca Johnson, October 31, 2005
• UN First Committee Update, by Rebecca Johnson, October 30, 2005
• UN First Committee 2005: Introduction, by Rebecca Johnson, October 20, 2005

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.

UN First Committee and General Assembly, 59th Sessions, September - December 2004

Reporting from 2004 UN First Committee

• 2004 UN First Committee: Better Organised, with Deep Divisions, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.79, April/May 2005.
• UN First Committee closes on November 5 after deciding to enhance its future work programme and adopting its remaining 8 resolutions
• UN First Committee adopts 9 more resolutions on November 1, 2004
• UN First Committee votes on October 28, 2004
• UN First Committee votes on October 27, 2004
• Voting commenced on the UN First Committee resolutions on October 26, 2004
• UN First Committee General Debate, October 4-14, 2004, Part I: Non-conventional weapons and reform, Merav Datan and Rebecca Johnson, October 25, 2004.
• PAROS discussions at the 2004 UN First Committee, by Rebecca Johnson, October 20, 2004.

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.

• UN General Assembly General Debate, September 21 - 30, 2004: Excerpts on Disarmament, Non-Proliferation & International Security, last updated October 1, 2004.

See also:

• Joint Ministerial Statement on the CTBT, New York, September 23, 2004
• 'Nonproliferation and Disarmament Go Hand in Hand', New Agenda Coalition op-ed in the International Herald Tribune, September 22, 2004

UN First Committee, 58th Sessions, September - December 2003

A full report on the 2003 UN First Committee, along with summaries of resolutions and voting is available below.

• "Troubled and Troubling Times":
  The 2003 UN First Committee Considers Disarmament and Reform
  By Rebecca Johnson.

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.

57th Sessions, September - December 2002

• First Committee Report: Anxiety, Hope and Cynicism: The 2002 UN First Committee
  By Fiona Simpson
• Appendix: Summary of Resolutions
• First Committee Update No. 1, October 21: A Review of the General Debate, by Fiona Simpson.
• First Committee General Debate, September 30-October 10: a Thematic Compilation of Statements
  • I. Opening Statements: UN Under-Secretary-General & Committee Chair
  • II. Terrorism, Disarmament and Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • III. The Iraq Crisis and the United Nations
  • IV. Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defence and Outer Space
  • V. Chemical and Biological Weapons
  • VI. Conventional Weapons, Small Arms and Landmines
  • VII. Regional and Multilateral Disarmament Processes, Institutions and Initiatives
• UN First Committee: September 30-November 1, 2002
  • Introductory Notes
  • New Agenda Coalition: Statement, September 30
  • New Agenda Resolution, I: Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World, October 1
  • New Agenda Resolution, II: Sub-Strategic Weapons, October 1
  • US Statement, October 3
  • CTBT Resolution, October 4
• UN General Assembly General Debate, September 12-20: Excerpts on Disarmament, Non-Proliferation & International Security
  (Please note: This is a large file and may take longer than usual to download.)

56th Sessions, October - December 2001

• UN First Committee Report, Disarmament Diplomacy, December 2001: Business as Usual in a Changed World: The 2001 UN First Committee by Jenni Rissanen
• UN First Committee Report: Summary of Resolutions
• UN First Committee Bulletin, October 26, 2001: Committee Begins Discussion on Resolutions and Decisions
• UN First Committee Bulletin, October 8, 2001: UN First Committee Opens

United Nations General Assembly, General Debate, Excerpts on Disarmament Issues, November 10-16, 2001

UN First Committee, General Debate, October 8 - 17, 2001

Coverage includes:

• Opening Statement by UN Under-Secretary-General
• Terrorism, Disarmament and Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defence and Outer Space
• Biological and Chemical Weapons
• Conventional Weapons, Small Arms and Landmines
• Disarmament Processes and Institutions

55th Session of the UN First Committee, October - November 2000

The UN First Committee took place from October 2 - November 1, 2000.

First Committee Report, November 2000

• Low-Key Meeting Seeks Commons Ground, by Jenni Rissanen and Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy No. 52, November 2000.
• Summary of Resolutions and Voting.

Interim Report

• Low-Key Discussions as Drafts Introduced, by Jenni Rissanen, Disarmament Diplomacy, No. 51, October 2000.

Excerpts from the General Debate

• Disarmament and the Rule of Law: Statement by Jayantha Dhanapala
• Nuclear Weapons and Missile Defence
• Chemical and Biological Weapons; Iraq and Sanctions
• Conventional Weapons, Small Arms and Landmines
• Disarmament Processes and Institutions

Announcement of Security Assurances for Mongolia

Progress of the New Agenda Resolution

• New Agenda Coalition Communiqué
• New Agenda Draft Resolution

55th Session of the UN General Assembly, General Debate, September 12-22, 2000

• Compilation of Statements (arms control and disarmament excerpts)

UN Millennium Summit, September 6-8, 2000

• Millennium Declaration (section on Peace, Security and Disarmament)
• Compilation of Summit Statements (arms control and disarmament excerpts)

54th Session of the UN First Committee and General Assembly, October 11 - November 12, 1999

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:

• UN First Committee seeks a new agenda on disarmament and backs the ABM treaty, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy No. 41, November 1999.
  Includes full coverage of resolutions and voting in the First Committee and the General Assembly.
• Report from the 1999 Session of the UN First Committee, by Sharon Riggle
• Summary of the UN General Assembly's General Debate
• Excerpts from the UN First Committee's General Debate

53rd First Committee, 1998

For full details and analysis, including summaries of the resolutions and voting, see Rebecca Johnson's report in Disarmament Diplomacy 32.

52nd First Committee, 1997

For full details and analysis, including summaries of the resolutions and voting, see Rebecca Johnson's report in Disarmament Diplomacy 20.

51st First Committee, 1996

For a report and summary of the resolutions and votes, see Disarmament Diplomacy No 10.

2005 World Summit, September 14 - 16, 2005

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:

• Arms Control Experts Urge UN Members to Resist U.S. Effort to Weaken Arms Control and Disarmament Commitments, Arms Control Association Press Release, August 26, 2005.
• United States: Proposed Amendments to revised draft outcomes document, August 17, 2005 [this is a large pdf file and may take some time to download].
• Bolton throws UN summit into chaos, Julian Borger, The Guardian, August 26, 2005.
• Road map for US relations with rest of world, Julian Borger, The Guardian, August 26, 2005.

For further information on the 2005 World Summit see:

• Reaching Critical Will
• The Arms Control Association
• The United Nations page on the 2005 World Summit
• Reform the UN

Background

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.

Related Developments

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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