Briefing on informal consultations on the annual report

Gabriella Irsten | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) convened on Tuesday, 13 September to brief member states on the process in the informal consultations on the draft annual report.

Updated version of the draft report
The meeting started of with the Deputy Secretary-General of the CD, Mr. Jarmo Sareva, introducing a new draft, which is built on the last plenary’s agreements and adoptions. Mr. Sareva explained that there are still several place-holders in the draft reserved for additional documents handed in to the CD Secretariat by member states. These documents will automatically be included in the final report when it is being processed.

The president of the CD, Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez of Cuba, expressed his appreciation to Mr. Michiel Combrink from South Africa for his work as a facilitator during the informal meetings on the draft annual report. Mr. Combrink gave a short briefing of what had taken place in the two meetings. Most of the work in the informal meetings had been dedicated to paragraph 5, 7, and 15 of the new draft, but the participants also touched upon paragraphs 16 and 21. However, no agreement had been reached and Mr. Combrink requested an additional informal meeting.

The delegations of Germany, Pakistan, Algeria, and Iran also made statements on the process. Ambassador Hoffmann of Germanystated that during the course of the discussion, “we became witnesses to an illuminating spectacle”. He explained that even though some progress has been made, the difficulty remains in deciding whether the annual report should describe “the reality of the CD or do we [...] all of a sudden pretend that by in large things are actually quite okay here.”

Mr. Khan of Pakistan, Mr. Daryaei of Iran, and Mr. Khelif of Algeria all believed that the CD is close to a consensus on the report. However, Mr. Khan argued that “selective quotation” and “cherry-picking” would not lead the CD anywhere. The representative of Pakistan also asked why the CD would report on disappointment and failures this year when no such remarks have been made in the last 13 annual reports to the General Assembly.

Next plenary meeting 
The next plenary meeting and final meeting of the 2011 session will be held on Thursday, 15 September after an informal meeting at 10:00 am. At this meeting, further work on the draft annual report will take place and member states will have the opportunity to address the CD in its last plenary of the year.