Disarmament Commission recommends Declaration for Third Disarmament Decade; agrees on guidelines for conventional disarmament.

Disarmament Commission recommends Declaration for Third Disarmament Decade

The Disarmament Commission at its three-week session (7-29 May, New York), recommended adoption of a draft Declaration for the Third Disarmament Decade--the 1990s--and urged an end to any military and nuclear aid to South Africa which would enhance its nuclear capability. The Commission also adopted by consensus as set of observations and recommendations on conventional disarmament.

Those were among the substantive issues the Commission dealt with through subsidiary bodies. The others were: aspects of the arms race, particularly the nuclear-arms race and nuclear disarmament; role of the United Nations in disarmament; naval armaments and disarmament; and objective information on military matters (a new item).

The Commission successfully concluded all outstanding issues at its current session except the new item. It also adopted concrete recommendations by consensus on most of the other items.

1990s--Third

Disarmament Decade

The Commission finalized the draft text of the "Declaration of the 1990s as the Third Disarmament Decade", for consideration by the forty-fifth session of the General Assembly. The text stresses, among other things, the important role that the general public, informed about the issues of disarmament, could play in promoting a constructive and realistic dialogue on disamament issues.

Also, to help increase global consciousness of the issues, the Commission stated that the World Disarmament Campaign and Disarmament Week would continue to play a useful role in achieving the goals of the Decade.

Nuclear-arms race

On the nuclear-arms race and nuclear disa mament, the Commission stated that disarmament is the responsibility of all States. However, "the nuclear-weapon States have the primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament and, together with other military significant States, for halting and reversing the arms race", the Commission stated.

The Commission also urged the co-operation of all States to reach the goal of nuclear non-proliferation by preventing the emergence of any additional nuclear-weapon States and progressively reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons altogether.

Naval armaments

and disarmament

The Disarmament Commission, the specialized deliberative body within the United Nations multilateral disarmament machinery, also concluded that positive developments were achieved in naval disarmament. It state that seaborne strategic nuclear weapons had been the subject of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, with both countries deciding to phase out some categories of seaborne nuclear weapons.

It suggested that consultations on this subject among interested States could pave the way to sea and naval disarmanet negotiations by building confidence among those States.

UN in the field

of disarmament

The Commission concluded the item on the role of the UN in disarmament and adopted a consensus text after six years of deliberation. It urged increasing the capability of the UN to deal with disarmament issues and pointed out that "in the exercise of his role, the Secretary-General should be assisted by an adequately staffed and funded Department for Disarmament Affairs. The resources accorded to the Department should be commensurate with the requirements of its mandated tasks in so far as budgetary restraints of the United Nations permit."

The Disarmament Commission, chaired by Nana S. Sutresna of Indonesia, noted the progress made by States members of two major military alliances towards an early agreement on substantial reduction of their conventional armed forces.