Comprehensive nuclear-test ban declared 'highest priority.' (First Committee on Disarmament and International Security report acted on by UN General Assembly)

Conclusion of a universal and multilaterally and effectively verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty was a "task of the highest priority", the General Assembly declared on 12 December.

Acting on the recommendation of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), the Assembly, by resolution 50/65, called upon all States participating in the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament--the world's sole multilateral disarmament body--particularly the nuclear-weapons States, to conclude such a treaty, so as to enable its signature by the outset of the Assembly's fifty-first session.

In strongly deploring "all current nuclear testing", the Assembly strongly urged (50/70 A) its "immediate cessation" and called (50/70 C) for the "determined pursuit by nuclear-weapon States of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goals of eliminating those weapons".

A total of 46 resolutions--22 without a vote--and three decisions had been approved by the First Committee, as it continued to review disarmament and international security matters in the post-cold-war era.

In noting with satisfaction (50/68) that in the Conference on Disarmament there was "no objection, in principle", to the idea of an international convention to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, the Assembly appealed for an "early agreement on a common approach and, in particular, on a common formula that could be included in an international instrument of a legally binding character".

First Committee Chairman Luvsangiin Erdenechuluun of Mongolia on 21 November declared that, amidst a "great emotional outcry" over nuclear non-proliferation issues and "other recent developments", the conclusion of a comprehensive test-ban treaty by 1996 had been "supported by an overwhelming majority of delegations", he stated.

Also, three nuclear-weapon States--France, the United Kingdom and the United States--had announced their intention to sign and ratify, early in 1996, additional protocols to the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Rarotonga).

Nuclear-weapon-free zones

The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (the Pelindaba Treaty)--adopted at the June 1995 Addis Ababa summit session of the Organization of African Unity--was hailed (50/78) as an "event of historic significance in the efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons". At the same time, the Assembly recognized the "right of African countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in order to accelerate the economic and social development of their peoples".

Establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones in the Middle East (50/66) and in South Asia (50/67) was also urged. The Assembly, in welcoming the accession on 26 September 1995 of the United Arab Emirates to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), called upon (50/73) Israel and all other States in the region not yet party to the NPT "not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons", to renounce their possession and accede to the Treaty at the earliest possible date.

By another text (50/77), full adherence of Santa Lucia to the 1967 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) and the Treaty's ratification by Saint Kitts and Nevis on 18 April 1995 were noted with satisfaction.

Other nuclear-related resolutions dealt with: prevention of an arms race in outer space (50/69); the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties of the NPT (50/70 Q); bilateral nuclear arms negotiations and nuclear disarmament (50/70 I, N, P and R); amendment of the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water (50/64); and convention on the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons (50/71 E).

Nuclear and `micro-disarmament' addressed by Marrack Goulding

Two agreements--a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty and a treaty on the cut-off of fissile materials production--would "open the way to negotiations on further quantitative reductions in nuclear weapons", Marrack Goulding, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the First Committee on 16 October.

Also, "micro-disarmament"--a set of measures to deal with specific, pragmatic and achievable goals in the area of conventional weapons--could help "tackle the problems of excessive and uncontrolled conventional armaments" in regions of the world that were "especially vulnerable to conflict at the present time", Mr. Goulding said, in expressing the views of the Secretary-General. There was an inescapable link between security and development, and the "issues of conflict" could not be resolved "without tackling the issues of economic and social development, or vice versa".

In urging prompt ratifications of the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, he also noted that the Convention was still 25 "short of the necessary 65 ratifications".

Blinding lasers, environmental concerns

A new instrument--Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV) annexed to the 1981 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects--approved by a Review Conference of the parties to the Convention on 13 October, was commended (50/74) by the Assembly to all States, with a view to achieving the "widest possible adherence" at an early date. The Assembly also urgently called upon all States that had not yet done so to "take all measures to become parties" to the Convention and its Protocols.

By resolution 50/70 E, it asked all States to take appropriate measures to prevent "any dumping of nuclear or radioactive wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States". Grave concern was also expressed regarding "any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for the national security of all States".

In resolution 50/70 M, the Assembly called on all States parties to the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, and to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, to ensure that the implementation of both treaties was "environmentally sound".

Regional security, illicit arms trade, land mines

In affirming that "global and regional approaches to disarmament complement each other and should therefore be pursued simultaneously", the Assembly called upon (50/70/ K) States to conclude agreements for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures. It also decided (50/70 L) to give "urgent consideration to the issues involved in conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels".

Member States were invited (50/70 J) to take "appropriate and effective enforcement measures" to ensure that illicit transfers of arms were "immediately discontinued", and to implement (50/70 H) national control measures in order to "check the illicit circulation of small arms, in particular by curbing the illegal exports of such arms".

Also, in realizing that "arms obtained through the illicit arms trade are most likely to be used for violent purposes" and that even small arms when so obtained, directly or indirectly, by terrorist groups, drug traffickers or underground organizations could pose a "danger to regional and international security, and certainly to the security and political stability of the countries affected", the General Assembly asked the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the subject (50/70 B).

States that had not yet declared moratoria on the export of anti-personnel land-mines were urged (50/70 O) to do so "at the earliest possible date", and further international efforts to seek solutions to the problems caused by such mines, with the view to their eventual elimination, were encouraged.

The Assembly decided (50/70 F) to convene its fourth special session on disarmament in 1997, an "opportune time to review the progress in the entire field of disarmament in the post-cold-war era". Three previous special sessions had been held in 1978, 1982 and 1988.

Other action included texts on: transparency in armaments and verification (50/70 D and 50/61); compliance with arms limitation and disarmament agreements (50/60); relationship between disarmament and development (50/70 G); the role of science and technology in the context of international security and disarmament (50/62 and 50/63); regional confidence-building measures (50/71 B); review of the implementation of the recommendations and decisions of the General Assembly's tenth special session (50/72 A-D); strengthening of security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (50/75); implementation of the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace (50/76); status of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (50/79); permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan (50/80 A); and development of good-neighbourly relations among Balkan States (50/80 B).