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CD returns to its struggle for a programme of work

Beatrice Fihn | Reaching Critical Will

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Tuesday, 15 February, where CD President Ambassador Grinius of Canada updated member states on the progress made so far during his presidency. Statements were also heard by the United States and Morocco.

Highlights

  • Ambassador Grinius told the CD that he has suggested a simplified programme of work that contains no mandates but rather just the agenda items. He stated that there is not enough enthusiasm for such an approach amongst member states and therefore not possible to carry out.
  • Ambassador Kennedy of the United States highlighted her appreciation for the side events on definitions of fissile materials that are being organized by Australia and Japan and argued that they are valuable contribution to the discussions.
  • The Moroccan ambassador repeated his delegation’s call from the high-level meeting in September and argued for the UN Secretary-General to conduct a study on the disarmament machinery. He also reported on the regional seminar on the arms trade treaty conducted in Morocco by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the European Union.

Ways forward after the thematic debates 
Ambassador Grinius noted that agreement on a programme of work has still not been reached. He explained that he had suggested to member states a simplified programme of work, without specific mandates, that focused on just the agenda items and built on the indicative timetable that has been carried out during the plenary meetings under his presidency. While noting that this kind of approach worked well in the early 1990s, he announced that there is no consensus for such a proposal at this moment.

Aside from attempting to break the deadlock over the programme of work, Ambassador Grinius argued that the thematic debates during his presidency had been a good use of time and that the initiative seemed to be appreciated by many delegations. He suggested that further exchanges would be worthwhile, particularly an interactive dialogue where delegations could ask questions and respond to each others statements.

Since the thematic debates are currently concluded, most CD delegations are engaging in substantive discussions at the three side events on definitions of fissile materials organized by Australia and Japan this week. Ambassador Laura Kennedy of the US commended Australia and Japan for this initiative and noted that the US had sent 5 experts from capital to join these discussions.  While highlighting that the side events are not intended to compete with the CD, Ambassador Kennedy stated that it would enrich its work.

Ambassador Hilale of Morocco subscribed to the statement by the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) on 26 January, where he highlighted that the continued deadlock in the CD has unfortunate complications around the world. Ambassador Hilale argued that the current deadlock will only allow for more proliferation and called for the UNSG to conduct a study on the disarmament machinery. While expressing hope that the UNSG’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters would help get the CD moving again, the Moroccan ambassador also called for the convening of an Fourth Special Session on Disarmament, in order to overcome the general problems of the disarmament machinery as a whole.

Civil society
Ambassador Grinius raised the issue on how the CD should engage civil society and noted that he had discussed this with all members and regional groups. However, he did not mention any concrete outcome of these discussions. However, Ambassador Grinius also announced that Canada is planning to hold a side event with civil society on 3 March, which would be organized under Canada’s national capacity, and not as a CD president.

Arms Trade Treaty
Ambassador Hilale of Morocco reported back from a seminar organized by UNIDIR and the European Union in Morocco on 2 to 4 February. The participants in this seminar had discussed the parameters and the application of a future Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and focused on regional discussions and sharing expertise. Ambassador Hilale argued that the general conviction at the seminar was that any future treaty should cover a large spectrum of conventional arms, including small arms and light weapons as well as their munitions. He further gave several other comments on potential characteristics of a future ATT, such as technical assistance, transparency measures, a support unit at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, and future meetings of states parties.

Notes from the gallery
After carrying out substantive thematic debates on the four core issues, CD delegations must not fall back into old habits and simply stop discussing the topics because of lack of consensus on a programme of work. The attempt to try another kind of programme of work, one without specific negotiating mandates, should have been more thoroughly considered by delegations. At its creation, the CD was mandated to negotiate the topics on its agenda. It is therefore important to remind member states that the CD already has a negotiating mandate on all items, and therefore specific mandates in a programme of work might not be necessary. By looking at programmes of work from the 1980s and 1990s, we can see that the practice was far from what is considered to be today’s “golden standard” of CD/1864. For example, in 1990 and 1989, the programme of work consisted of a schedule of discussions on the agenda topics. For more information on previous programmes of work, Reaching Critical Will has created an archive of old CD documents, including old programmes of work. 

While specific negotiating mandates might have been the preferred way of dealing with substantive work the past 14 years, the lack of progress has shown that CD delegations might need to rethink this approach. Perhaps the CD should abandon processes that have not proved to be efficient, and return to what has worked before.

Next plenary meeting
The next plenary meeting will be held on Thursday, 17 February.