Conference on Disarmament (CD)

Contact Details:

Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Telephone: +41 (22) 917-2280
Facsimile: +41 (22) 917-0034
Telex : +41 (22) 941-2962

HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS

The Conference on Disarmament is, in the language of the Final Document of the first special session on disarmament, the "single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum" of the international community. Its membership of 66 States includes all 5 nuclear-weapon States. The Conference on Disarmament was constituted in this configuration in 1978 after agreement was reached among member states during the first special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to disarmament. It held its first session in 1979 carrying forward the negotiating efforts of its predecessors: the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, 1959 - 1960; the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (ENDC), 1962 - 1968; the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD), 1969 - 1978; and Committee on Disarmament 1979 - 1983. The present name was adopted in 1984.

The Conference on Disarmament, which meets in Geneva, is committed to promoting general and complete disarmament under effective international control. The aim of the organisation is the negotiation of multilateral non-proliferation and disarmament agreements.

The CD has a unique relationship with the United Nations. It is funded from the UN regular budget but defines its own rules of procedure and develops its own agenda, taking into account the recommendations made by the General Assembly and the proposals presented by member states. It reports to the General Assembly annually or more frequently, as may be appropriate. The Secretary- General of the Conference is appointed by the Secretary- General of the United Nations following consultations with the Conference, and acts as his personal representative. In 1979, the Committee on Disarmament agreed on a permanent agenda consisting of ten areas:

Nuclear weapons in all their aspects.
Chemical weapons (no longer current following the completion of negotiations on the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1992).
Other weapons of mass destruction.
Conventional weapons.
Reduction of military budgets.
Reduction of armed forces.
Disarmament and development.
Disarmament and international security.
Collateral measures; confidence-building measures; effective verification methods in relation to appropriate disarmament measures acceptable to all parties concerned.
Comprehensive programme of disarmament leading to general and complete disarmament under effective international control.
From this so-called "decalogue", the Conference on Disarmament adopts an annual agenda and programme of work.

The Conference on Disarmament is a body of limited composition, which takes its decisions based on consensus. Membership is reviewed at regular intervals.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS AND COOPERATING ORGANISATIONS

Defence
Minerals and Energy
Public Enterprise
Trade and Industry
Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA)

RELEVANT TREATIES/PROTOCOLS ETC.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

MEMBER STATES

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, DPRK, DR Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, ROK, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian AR, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe.

GENERAL COMMENTS

South Africa was admitted to the Conference on Disarmament in 17 June 1996 simultaneously with 22 other countries, following several years of negotiation and lobbying for an expansion of the 38 former member states. The membership was expanded by a complicated package deal brokered largely by South Africa. South Africa has been increasingly active in the CD with the most notable example being the proposal by South Africa in 1998 for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on Nuclear Disarmament in order to bridge the intractable positions of the Nuclear Weapons States on the one hand and the Non-Nuclear Weapon States on the other.

Efforts are currently under way to attempt to break the deadlock in the Conference on Disarmament. The CD ended in 2000 without a Programme of Work and therefore neither substantive negotiations nor the establishment of subsidiary bodies. With the exception of a few weeks in 1998, the CD has remained deadlocked since the conclusion of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.