The CD negotiates the second draft of its annual report

Gabriella Irsten | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met twice on Tuesday, 6 September to discuss the revised draft annual report of the CD to the UN General Assembly. The morning session started with Ambassador Paul van den IJssel of the Netherlands reminding the Conference of the invitation to the briefing on the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention taking place on Wednesday, 7 September.

Draft report
The debate on the draft annual report was carried out in the same paragraph-to-paragraph procedure as in the last plenary meeting. Six new adaptations were made from the prior meeting, including to the paragraphs 32, 33, 37, 43, as well as parts of 48 and 50.

The rest of the pending paragraphs from the plenary on 1 September were discussed further. While many amendments were of procedural nature and quick to be resolved, lengthy discussions on certain parts of the reports highlighted the usual problems in the CD. 
For example, a proposal made by the Moroccan delegation concerning paragraph 5 attempted to address the perceived problem of selectivity in reporting on the UN Secretary-General’s statement made in the CD on 26 January 2011 by only keeping to the major messages delivered by the Secretary-General in the text. Currently, the paragraph indicates that the Secretary-General “suggested that, early in [its] 2011 session, the Conference adopt [the] programme of work [adopted in 2009] or any other similar subsequent proposal that the Conference can agree to do by consensus.” The Pakistani delegation made a new proposal that this paragraph should only contain a reference to the verbatim records of the meeting with the Secretary-General. The Indian delegation preferred to keep the original version, adding the words “inter alia” before the statement by the Secretary-General. The US delegation expressed concerns about the Pakistani proposal, namely that keeping the message of the Secretary General to just one sentence would not be appropriate.

The US delegation also reiterated that paragraph 7 still included parts that Ms. Hillary Clinton had not subscribed to, such as “welcomed the concerned efforts by the Presidents of the CD” and the wording “the single multilateral negotiation forum”. This comment was followed by new amendments from the delegations of India, Mexico, and Cuba addressing the problem. 

The most detailed debate, however, took place on the paragraphs reflecting the follow-up work of the high-level meeting (HLM) in New York in September 2010, the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters’ meeting with CD members, and the recent UN General Assembly debate on the issue of the CD in July 2011. After a long debate on how to best structure the section on the organizational work of the CD, the conference agreed to move paragraph 8–11 to Part II, section G.

Section G was later discussed and the outcome was expressed in three proposals from Columbia, Iran, andGermany. The main divergence amongst CD members was based on how the annual report should reflect the activities of other forums’ interpretations and views of the CD. Some delegations, such as Mexico and Germany, would prefer the report to include members states’ concerns about the deadlock in the CD while the Pakistani delegation stated that such wording would only be one view of the situation in the CD and opposed further to giving space in the annual report to meetings held outside the CD. The Algerian delegation also stressed the importance of the report illuminating the CD member states’ views on the current situation and not other bodies or groups’ positions on the CD. 

Delegations also raised the issue of repetitive paragraphs in several instances. E.g. the US delegation disagreed with the Pakistani suggestion to divide paragraph 20 into two parts, arguing that it would just elongate the report without adding any substance, which would not reflect well on the CD by potential readers. Pakistan defended its amendment, arguing that repetition is important for clarity, and that this had been done in previous annual reports. Iran’s delegate took the floor to support Pakistan’s amendment in the view that it clarified the section.

Finally, the Mexican delegation reiterated what it had stated in the last meeting, that the report should avoid giving the impression that the CD carried out substantive work when it is actually not doing any work at all. 

CD President Ambassador Reyes Rodriguez of Cuba announced that the Secretariat would issue a new and updated draft report, attempting to take all comments into consideration, by Friday. 

Next plenary meeting
The next plenary meeting will be held on Friday, 9 September at 10:00 am, where the CD will continue to negotiate the draft annual report.