How to get the CD back to work again: a suggestion from Poland and more on the 24 September high-level meeting

Ray Acheson | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF

Upon opening the plenary meeting on 17 August, the current CD President Ambassador Gancho Ganev of Bulgaria bid farewell to Ambassador Zdzislaw Rapacki of Poland, who is moving to a new post. After Ambassador Rapacki delivered his farewell speech, delegates from the Russian Federation, Algeria, Pakistan, and Germany wished him well. India’s Ambassador Rao delivered a statement outlining his delegation’s positions on the CD’s issues and deadlock. The Deputy Secretary-General for the CD, Mr. Jarmo Sareva, informed the Conference of some details related to the 24 September high-level meeting to be held in New York, which promoted questions and comments from the delegates of Algeria, Germany, Pakistan, Ukraine, Brazil, and Cameroon.

Brief highlight
Ambassador Rapacki of Poland suggested that the majority of CD member states who wish to begin negotiations should do so in plenary meetings, in which all states could make their positions known but would not be able to block progress.

The Deputy Secretary-General for the CD announced that the high-level meeting on the CD would be held on 24 September from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Conference Room 2 in the North Lawn Building in New York.

Several delegations urged the CD President to convene an informal meeting of CD member states in advance of the 24 September meeting to discuss possible outcomes and provide input to the Secretary-General. The CD President agreed to convene this meeting, which will be announced at a later date.

On the workings of the CD
In his farewell speech, Ambassador Rapacki of Poland took a firm stance against the continuing deadlock in the CD. He argued that the rule of consensus “is to be cherished by all of us, but it should not apply to purely procedural matters. Obstruction has to have its limits.” Furthermore, he suggested that if the CD continues to suffer from “procedural stalling tactics .. more active consideration should devoted to to the idea of developing an alternative forum or parallel process, in which real work could be undertaken on the ripe core issues, without the constraints of the CD’s rules of procedure.”

However, he also argued that in fact the CD’s existing rules of procedures should allow for the majority of CD member states to start negotiations without a mandate and without an agreement on a subsidiary body, “simply by conscientiously organizing such negotiations among themselves in the plenary meetings.” He noted that such negotiations would have to be organized independently of the CD presidency, which would have to continue leading discussions of member states as a whole.

Taking a different view of the matter, Ambassador Rao of India argued that the consensus rule is not the problem and in fact has served the CD well. He urged for the adoption of programme of work to enable commencement of substantive work.

24 September high-level meeting
The Deputy Secretary-General for the CD, Mr. Jarmo Sareva, confirmed that the high-level meeting on the CD would be held on 24 September from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Conference Room 2 in the North Lawn Building in New York. Several delegations posed questions, which Mr. Sareva took the floor to answer.

Question (Algeria): What consultation have gone on with member states to determine the organization of the meeting?
Answer: The Secretary-General has been consulting a large number of member states both in New York and in his interactions with high-level officials during his travels and will meet with the chairs of New York’s five regional groups.

Question (Algeria) (seconded by Ukraine): Is it possible to extend the meeting to a full day?
Answer: Due to the large number of high-level meetings scheduled to be held on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September, five hours is the maximum possible length of the meeting.

Question (Algeria): How long will each delegation have to speak?
Answer: At most five minutes, but the exact time is yet to be determined.

Question (Algeria): What is the outcome to be? Will there be any follow-up?
Answer: The Secretary-General will produce a final report in the form of a Chair’s summary, which will probably contain a forward-looking aspect.

Question (Algeria): Will statements be recorded?
Answer: Probably not due to the volume of meetings on at the time but there will at least be an official press release.

Question (Pakistan): Will statements be made by regional representatives rather than states (as reportedly suggested by the Secretariat in New York) or are countries or groups free to express their own views?
Answer: The idea of regional statements has been abandoned in favour of having as many high-level officials as possible speak on behalf of their governments, which is why the meeting length has been expanded to five hours.

Question (Pakistan): If the outcome is to be a Chair’s summary, how will CD member states have ownership over the outcome?
Answer: no answer given

Question (Brazil): What is the official title of the 24 September meeting?
Answer: “Revitalizing the work of the Conference on Disarmament and taking forward multilateral negotiations”.

The longest discussion took place over whether or not CD members should and could convene an informal meeting ahead of the 24 September high-level meeting to exchange their views about the purpose and potential outcome of the meeting. Representatives fromGermany, Pakistan, Algeria, Brazil, and Cameroon urged the CD President to convene such a meeting, arguing that while an informal meeting would not necessarily effect the outcome of the 24 September meeting, it could at least give an opportunity for CD member states to provide input to the Secretary-General in advance of his summary. The CD President noted that there has not been much enthusiasm for such an informal meeting recently, but after the urging of delegations, he announced at the end of the plenary that he would schedule a meeting and communicate its format at a later date.

Notes from the gallery
Welcoming the initiative of some governments in the CD to discuss the 24 September meeting in advance, Reaching Critical Will also encourages civil society groups to think about the possible outcomes of this meeting and provide recommendations to their governments for discussion at the meeting and for the forward-looking elements of the Chair’s summary. While this may only be a five hour meeting among high-level officials, it is another opportunity for civil society to engage with the CD outside of Geneva and to provide some suggestions on what to do about our stalemated disarmament machinery.

Next meeting
The time and date of the next plenary meeting of the CD has not yet been determined.