UNITED NATIONS, May 16: Member nations of the world body have been urged to make progress on the UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) as the long impasse on the issue has plagued the world body’s function.
The appeal came from UN General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser.
“Indeed, the failure of the CD in making substantive progress for well over a decade has undoubtedly put the credibility of this crucially important body at a high risk,” Al-Nasser said yesterday in his remarks to the opening of the second part of the Conference’s 2012 session in Geneva.
Established in 1979 and with a current membership of 65 countries, the CD primarily focuses on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war, and prevention of an arms race in outer space, among other issues. It has been plagued in recent years by an inability to overcome differences among its members and start its substantive work towards advancing disarmament goals.
Over its history, the CD has produced landmark disarmament instruments such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
According to information available at UN headquarters in New York, Mr Al-Nasser noted that in resolutions adopted over the past couple of years, the Assembly has recognised that the political will to advance the disarmament agenda has been strengthened in recent years. “Yet, it has expressed grave concern about the current status of the disarmament machinery, including the lack of progress in the Conference on Disarmament, and stressed the need for greater efforts to advance multilateral disarmament negotiations,” he said.
(UNI)
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