STATEMENT TO THE FIRST COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY Follow-up of resolutions and decisions adopted by the First Committee at its past session / Presentation of reports Angela Kane High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations Headquarters, 15 October 2014 Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. We have reached that moment in our annual deliberations when I am called upon to address the implementation of resolutions requesting reports by the Secretary-General. In performing this role, I am carrying on a tradition in this Committee that has lasted over a decade, a tradition that is very much based on common sense. After all, the most important function of this Committee relates to the adoption of resolutions. The content of these resolutions tells us something about the current—and at times the emerging—conditions of international relations. They signal what matters most as priorities to Member States, and what needs to be done to address particular challenges dealing with disarmament and the regulation of armaments. Together, these resolutions contribute to the discovery, the maintenance, and the strengthening of multilateral norms in these fields. While the Committee typically adopts over 50 resolutions each year, over half of them have included requests for the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly on their implementation. The Secretariat in turn sends notes verbales to Member States, compiles the responses and drafts the Secretary-General’s report. The Office for Disarmament Affairs is doing its best to encourage Member States to respond to these requests. There are six types of these reports, which I will now briefly survey. First, some resolutions annually request the Secretary-General to seek the views of States on particular disarmament issues, including those relating to weapons of mass destruction, the regulation of conventional arms, and several additional subjects. This year there were eleven such reports. The second type of report contains statistical data provided by States relating to the use of two United Nations transparency instruments: the Register of Conventional Arms and the Report on Military Expenditures. The third category of reporting pertains to resolutions that are adopted either biennially or triennially—this year there were two biennial resolutions relating to
2
disarmament education and to depleted uranium. The fourth type of report is ad hoc in nature—they too seek the views of States, but tend not to be recurring and often are focused on a specific event. There were two such reports this year, which addressed the follow-ups to the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament and the work of the Open-Ended Working Group on taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. As is customary, I have consolidated information on the first four types of reports in the first two Tables in the attachment to my statement today. Table I compares reporting by States during the 68th and 69th session of the General Assembly and also identifies reporting by the sponsors of the relevant resolutions. Table II provides additional details identifying the Member States that submitted views, the timeliness of those submissions, participation by the main sponsors, and the regional distribution of the reports. The fifth type of report contains substantive information provided by the Office for Disarmament Affairs, such as reports of the regional centres for peace and disarmament, the work of the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, disarmament education, and several other subjects. This year, eleven such reports were submitted and these are listed in Table III. The sixth and last type of report essentially consists of other reports that do not fit into these other categories, notably including the transmission of reports prepared by other international organizations, such as the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. There were six such reports this year, as listed in Table III. All together, 34 reports were submitted to this Committee, slightly more than last year. This contrasts with past efforts within the Committee to improve the efficiency of its methods of work by reducing the number of resolutions through consolidations and multiyear reporting. In reviewing these reports, I would like to make some brief observations on what the data in these tables are telling us. Despite the importance attached by Member States to their requirements for reports, the principal finding this year echoes that from the year before, and the year before that— namely, there continues to be a very low level of participation in contributing these reports. With respect to the 11 annually recurring resolutions seeking the views of Member States, the largest number of responses submitted was 16, with the exception of one report submitted on behalf of the League of Arab States. In some cases, the responses numbered in single digits. Excluding that group report, the average number of submitted reports was about 10—representing only 5 percent of Member States.
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On the brighter side, I can report that for those States that did report, there were increases—relative to last year—in the number of reports submitted for nine of the eleven resolutions in this category. And in general, reports were submitted on a timely basis. More troubling is a decrease in reporting using the two United Nations transparency instruments, including a rather precipitous drop in participation in the Register of Conventional Arms—this year, thirteen fewer States submitted data to the Register. With respect to the 15 resolutions seeking the views of States—namely, the reports requested annually, the multi-year requests, and the ad hoc requests found in Table II—only three resolutions had participation from all regions. These related to the resolutions on the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion, depleted uranium, and the Open-Ended Working Group on taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. With respect to the other 12 resolutions, in some cases entire regions were silent. I hope that my summary today will prove useful to Member States, especially if it encourages a higher rate of reporting pursuant to the resolutions adopted by the Committee. This information may also encourage the sponsors of resolutions that contain reporting requirements to reassess the need for such requests in cases where reporting is chronically at a very low level. It hardly serves to advance the goals of resolutions when as many as 95 percent of Member States—including even their sponsors—fail to provide their views. Such report requests produce little gain for disarmament, while consuming time and resources of the Secretariat. I will now conclude my remarks with a few words of wisdom offered by that great 18th Century American statesman, Benjamin Franklin. He included the following among what he called the “13 virtues”—words that could scarcely prove more appropriate to this occasion today: “Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.” Thank you for this opportunity to brief the Committee on this important issue.
TABLE I Reports of the Secretary General containing views of Member States at 69th session of the General Assembly as compared to the 68th session 68th session
69th session
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Increase/ Decrease in reporting
12
3 (36)
16
2 (17)
+4
132
1 (1)
133
0 (1)
0
6
4 (11)
10
4 (11)
+4
Observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of agreements on disarmament and arms control (A/68/118 and Add.1 & A/69/115) Confidence-building measures in the regional and sub-regional context (A/68/99 and Add.1 & A/69/116)
4
4 (11)
5
2 (11)
+1
7
1 (10)
10
2 (9)
+3
68/56
Conventional arms control at the regional and sub-regional levels (A/68/133 and Add.1 & A/69/139)
11
0 (6)
11
1 (5)
-
68/42
Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (A/68/137 & A/69/131 and Add.1) Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction (A/68/164 and Add.1 & A/69/138 and Add.1]
5
1 (38)
10
6 (35)
+5
15
5 (49)
16
8 (57)
+1
Resolution No. 68/243
68/27
68/38 68/36
68/55
68/41
Title of Report
Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (A/68/156 and Add.1 & A/69/112 and Add.1) Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East (A/68/124 (Part I), Add.1 and Add.2 & A/69/130 (Part I) and Add.1) Promotion of multilateralism in the area of disarmament and nonproliferation (A/68/152 and Add.1 & A/69/118 and Add.1)
68/67
Strengthening of security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (A/68/132 & A/69/169)
3
3 (39)
4
2 (31)
+1
68/33
Women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control (A/68/166 and Add.1 & A/69/114 and Add.1)
12
4 (34)
16
1 (1)
+4
68/37
Relationship between disarmament and development (A/68/119 and Add.1 & A/69/152)
9
5 (11)
12
6 (11)
+3
1
2
Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement.
Including Libya on behalf of the Arab Group 3 Including Iraq on behalf of the League of Arab States
5
Reports containing information provided by Member States at 69th session of the General Assembly as compared to the 68th session 68h session
Resolution No.
68/23 68/43
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Increase/ Decrease in reporting
53
44 (55)
49
31 (51)
-4
58
38 (71)
45
20 (35)
-13
Title of Report
Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures (A/68/131 and Add.1 & A/69/135 and Add.1) United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (A/68/138 and Add.1 & A/69/124 and Add.1)
69th session
Biennial resolutions 67th session Resolution No. 67/47 67/36
1
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Increase/ Decrease in reporting
10
4 (20)
10
6 (34)
0
6
3 (11)
12
7 (11)
+6
Title of Report
Disarmament and non-proliferation education (A/67/138 and Add.1 & A/69/113 and Add.1) Effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium (A/67/177 and Add.1 & A/69/151)
69th session
Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement.
6
Responses of States in response to request for views as stipulated in GA resolution 68/32 68h session
Resolution No.
68/32
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Increase/ Decrease in reporting
-
-
19
2 (11)
-
Title of Report
Follow-up to the 2013 high-level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament (A/69/172 and Add.1)
69th session
Responses of Member States in response to request for views as stipulated in GA resolutions 68/46
68th session
Resolution No.
68/46
1
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Replies
Participation of Main Sponsors
Increase/ Decrease in reporting
-
-
28
8 (18)
-
Title of Report
Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations (A/69/154 and Add.1)
69th session
Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement
7 TABLE II Comparison of reports containing views of Member States for the 68th and the 69th sessions of the General Assembly 68th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Developments in the field of information and telecommunication in the context of international security (resolutions 68/243; reports A/68/156 and Add.1 & A/69/112 and Add.1)
Establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the region of the Middle East (resolutions 68/27; reports A/68/124 (Part I), Add.1and Add.2 & A/69/130 (Part I and Add.1)
Member States who submitted views Armenia Canada* Cuba* Germany* Iran Japan Netherlands Oman Spain* Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom*
Timeliness
Late Late On time Late Late Late Late Late On time Late On time On time
Late Late On time Late Late On time Late On time On time Late Late On time
Australia* Colombia Cuba* Egypt Iran* Iraq* Israel Jordan Libya1 Norway Portugal* Syrian Arab Republic* Ukraine*
On time
*Member States reported to both 68th and 69th sessions 1 2
On behalf of the Arab Group On behalf of the League of Arab States
Participation of Main Sponsors 3 (36)
1 (1)
69th session of the General Assembly
Regional distribution
Member States who submitted views
Timeliness
Latin America &Caribbean States: 1 Eastern European States: 2 Western European & other States: 5 Asia States: 4
Latin America &Caribbean States:2 Asian States: 4 African States: 2 Eastern European States: 1 Western European & other States: 3
Australia Austria Canada* Colombia Cuba* El Salvador France Georgia Germany* Portugal Rep. of Korea Serbia Spain* Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom* Argentina Australia* Cuba* Ecuador Iran* Iraq Iraq2* Israel Lebanon Mexico Portugal* Syrian Arab Republic* Ukraine*
On time On time Late On time On time On time Late On time On time On time Late On time Late Late On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
On time
Participation of Main Sponsors 2 (17)
Regional distribution
0 (1)
Latin America &Caribbean States: 4 Western European & other States: 3 Asian States: 5 Eastern European States:1
Western European & other States: 10 Latin America & Caribbean States: 3 Eastern European States: 2 Asian States: 1
8
9 68th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Promotion of multilateralism in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation (resolutions 68/38; reports A/68/152 and Add.1 & A/69/118 and Add.1) Observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of agreements on disarmament and arms control (resolutions 68/36; reports A/68/118 and Add.1 & A/69/115) 1
Member States who submitted views China Colombia Cuba* Iraq* Mauritius Uruguay
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
On time On time On time On time Late On time
4 (11)
Asian States: 2 Latin America & Caribbean States: 3 African States: 1
Late On time On time On time
4 (11)
Latin America & Caribbean States: 2 Asian States: 2
Colombia Cuba* Lebanon Qatar
Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement * Member States reported to both 68th and 69th sessions
69th session of the General Assembly Member States who submitted views Argentina Cuba* Ecuador El Salvador Georgia Iraq* Mexico Pakistan Portugal Ukraine
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
4 (11)
Latin America & Caribbean States: 5 Eastern European States: 2 Asian States: 2 Western European & other States:1
On time On time On time On time On time
2 (11)
Latin America & Caribbean States: 1 • Eastern European States: 2 Western European &other States:1 • Asian States:1
Cuba* Georgia Iraq Portugal Ukraine
10
68th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Confidencebuilding measures in the regional and sub-regional context (resolutions 68/55; report A/68/99 and Add.1 & A/69/116)
Conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels (resolutions 68/56; reports A/68/133 and Add.1 & A/69/139)
Member States who submitted views Azerbaijan* China Cuba* Germany Jordan Mexico Ukraine*
Timeliness
Late On time On time On time On time On time On time
On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time Late On time On time
Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan* Burkina Faso China Czech Republic Germany Jordan Madagascar Montenegro Spain*
*Member States reported to both 68th and 69th sessions
69th session of the General Assembly
Participation of Main Sponsors 1 (10)
Regional distribution
0 (6)
Latin America & Caribbean States:1 Eastern European
Asian States: 2 Latin America & Caribbean States: 2 Western European & other States: 1 Eastern European States: 2
States: 4
African States:2 Asian States: 2 Western European & other States: 2
Member States who submitted views Armenia Azerbaijan* Cuba* Dominican Republic Ecuador Portugal Qatar Serbia Spain Ukraine*
Timeliness
On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
Azerbaijan* Bolivia Chile Cuba Georgia Mexico Panama Portugal Serbia Spain* Ukraine
Participation of Main Sponsors 2 (9)
Regional distribution
1 (5)
Eastern European States: 4 Latin America & Caribbean States: 5 Western European & other States: 2
Eastern European States: 4 • Latin America & Caribbean States: 3 • Western European & other States: 2 • Asian States: 1
11 68h session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (resolutions 68/42; report A/68/137 & A/69/131 and Add.1) Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction (resolutions 68/41; A/68/164 and Add.1 and A/69/138 and Add.1)
Member States who submitted views Austria* Cuba* Iraq* Mexico* Qatar
Australia Canada Cuba Iraq Jordan Lebanon Mexico* Norway* Paraguay Poland Portugal Qatar Slovenia Ukraine Uruguay
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
On time On time On time On time
1 (38)
•
On time Late On time Late On time On time On time Late Late On time Late On time On time Late On time
5 (49)
Wester n European & other States: 1 • Latin America & Caribbean States: 2 Asian States: 2
Western European & other States: 4 Latin America & Caribbean States: 4 Asian States: 4 Eastern European States: 3
69th session of the General Assembly Member States who submitted views Austria* Cuba* Ecuador Georgia India Iraq* Lebanon Libya Mexico* Ukraine
Timeliness
Late On time On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time
On time On time On time On time On time On time
* Member States reported to both 68th and 69th sessions.
Argentina Australia Canada Chile Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Georgia India Iraq Lebanon Mexico Oman Panama Portugal Russian Federation Ukraine United Kingdom
On time On time Late On time On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time
Participation of Main Sponsors 6 (35)
Regional distribution
8 (57)
Latin America & Caribbean States: 7 Asian States: 4 Eastern European States: 2 Western European & other States: 3
Latin America & Caribbean States: 3 Eastern European States:2 Asian States:3 African States: 1 Western European & other States: 1
12 68th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Strengthening of security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (resolution 68/67; reports A/68/132 & A/69/169)
Relationship between disarmament and development (resolutions 68/37; reports A/68/119 and Add.1 & A/69/152)
Member States who submitted views Malta Netherlands Spain*
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
On time On time On time
3 (39)
Western European & other States: 3
5 (11)
Eastern European States:1 African States: 2 Asian States: 2 Latin America & Caribbean States: 2 Western European & other States: 2
Armenia Burkina Faso Burundi Colombia* Iraq* Mexico* Portugal* Qatar* Spain*
On time On time On time On time On time Late On time On time On time
1 Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement * Member States reported to both 68th and 69th sessions
69th session of the General Assembly
Member States who submitted views Colombia Lebanon Portugal Spain*
Timeliness
On time On time On time On time
On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
Albania Argentina Chile Colombia* Cuba Iraq* Mexico* Panama Portugal* Qatar* Spain* Ukraine
Participation of Main Sponsors 2 (31)
Regional distribution
6 (11)
Eastern European States: 2 Latin America & Caribbean States: 6 Asian States: 2 Western European & other States: 2
Asian States:1 Latin America & Caribbean States: 1 Western European & other States: 2
13
68th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Women, disarmament, nonproliferation and arms control (resolution 68/338; report A/68/166 and Add.1 & A/69/114 and Add.1)
Member States who submitted views Argentina* Australia* Colombia* Cuba* Italy Jamaica Lithuania Netherlands Portugal* Switzerland* Trinidad and Tobago* Ukraine*
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
4 (34)
Eastern European States: 2 Latin America and Caribbean States: 5 Western European and other States: 5
On time On time On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
69th session of the General Assembly Member States who submitted views Argentina* Australia* Colombia* Cuba* Denmark Ecuador Georgia Iraq Lebanon Mexico Panama Philippines Portugal* Switzerland* Ukraine* Trinidad & Tobago*
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
1 (1)
Latin America and Caribbean States: 7 • Western European and other States: 4 • Eastern European States: 2 • Asian States: 3
On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time Late
14 Comparison of reports containing views of Member States for the 67 th and the 69th sessions of the General Assembly (Biennial resolutions)
Title of Report
Disarmament and nonproliferation education (resolutions 67/47; reports A/67/138 and Add.1 & A/69/113 and Add.1)
Effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium (resolution 67/36, report A/67/177 and Add.1 & A/69/151)
67th session of the General Assembly
68th session of the General Assembly
Member States who submitted views Austria* Colombia Cuba* Germany* Italy Japan* Lebanon Mexico* New Zealand Panama*
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
4 (20)
Western Europe and other States: 4 Latin America and Caribbean States: 4 Asian States: 2
3 (11)
Latin America and Caribbean States: 1 African States: 1 Western Europe and other States: 1 Eastern European States: 1 Asian States: 2
Colombia Ethiopia Japan Netherlands* Qatar Serbia
On time On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time Late On time Late On time
* Member States reported to both 67th and 69th session 1 Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement
Member States who submitted views Argentina Austria* Cuba* El Salvador Germany* Iraq Japan* Mexico* Panama* Portugal
Timeliness
Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
6 (34)
• Western Europe and other States: 3 • Latin America and Caribbean States:5 • Asian States: 2
On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
7 (11)
Latin America and Caribbean States: 6 Asian States: 2 African States: 1 Western European and other States: 2 Eastern European States: 1
Argentina Bolivia Cuba Ecuador Iraq Libya Mexico Netherlands* Oman Panama Spain Ukraine
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
15
Responses of Member States in response to request for views as stipulated in GA resolution 68/46 69th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations (resolution 68/46; report A/69/154 and Add.1)
Member States who submitted views Argentina Australia Austria Burkina Faso Canada Costa Rica Cuba Denmark El Salvador France Georgia Germany Ghana India Iraq Ireland Japan Jordan Libya Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Panama Slovenia Switzerland Ukraine
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
8 (18)
African States: 3 Asian States: 5 Eastern European States: 3 Latin America and Caribbean States: 6 Western European and other States: 11
Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time Late Late Late On time Late On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time Late On time On time
16 Responses of Member States in response to request for views as stipulated in GA resolution 68/32
69th session of the General Assembly
Title of Report
Follow-up to the 2013 high-level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament (resolution 68/32, report A/69/172 and Add.1)
Member States who submitted views Argentina Austria Brazil Canada Cuba Ecuador France Georgia India Indonesia1 Iraq Lebanon Libya Mexico Netherlands Switzerland Ukraine United States of America Uruguay
Timeliness
Participation of Main Sponsors
Regional distribution
2 (11)
Latin America and Caribbean States: 6 Western European and other States: 6 Eastern European States:2 Asian States: 4 African States: 1
On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time Late On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time On time
On time
1 Indonesia on behalf of the States of the UN that are members of the Non Aligned Movement
17
Table III Reports of the First Committee containing ODA’s contributions to their substance 69th Session of the General Assembly Resolution No. 38/183 O 68/37 67/50, 68/34 & 68/48
67/67 68/60 68/59 68/61 67/68 67/47 68/64 68/31
Title of Report Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters [A/69/208] Relationship between disarmament and development [also includes views from Member States] (A/69/152) Consolidated report on: - Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures - Assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons and collecting them - The illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects (A/69/132) United Nations Disarmament Information Programme (A/69/134) United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (A/69/136) United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (A/69/127) United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (A/69/133) United Nations Disarmament fellowship, training and advisory services programme (A/69/168) Disarmament and non-proliferation education (A/69/113 and Add.1) [also includes views from Member States and organizations] Report of the Conference on Disarmament (A/69/27) The Arms Trade Treaty (A/69/173)
18
Table IV Other Reports of the First Committee 69th Session of the General Assembly
Resolution No. 39/148 H 67/52 68/68 54/280
55/283 68/63
Title of Report Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) (A/69/176) Mongolia’s international security and nuclear-weapon-free status (A/69/140) Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (A/69/137) Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the annual report of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) (A/69/164) Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the annual report of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) (A/69/171) Disarmament Commission [A/69/42 Supplement No. 42)]