United Nations Disarmament Commission
The General Assembly, by its resolution 502 (VI) of January 1952, created the United Nations Disarmament Commission under the Security Council with a general mandate on disarmament questions. However, it met only occasionally after 1959.
In June 1978,
first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament established a successor Disarmament Commission (
UNDC) as a subsidiary organ of the Assembly, composed of all Member States of the United Nations. It was created as a deliberative body, with the function of considering and making recommendations on various problems in the field of disarmament and of following up on the relevant decisions and recommendations of the special session, however, the UNDC is not entitled to pass resolutions. It reports annually to the General Assembly.
Over the years, the UNDC has formulated consensus principles, guidelines and recommendations on a large number of subjects, which have been endorsed by the General Assembly. The UNDC, which meets for three weeks in the spring, operates in plenary meetings and working groups, the number of working groups depending on the number of substantive items on its agenda. The UNDC chairmanship rotates among the UNGA five geographical groups, while the chairmen of the working groups are selected in accordance with the principle of equitable geographical distribution.
In the light of its function, the UNDC focuses on a limited number of agenda items at each session. By its
decision 52/492, the General Assembly decided that the UNDC's agenda, as of 2000, would normally comprise two substantive items, one of which related to nuclear weapons.
The UNDC agenda for the cycle 2009-2011 includes the following topics:
- recommendations for achieving the objective of nuclear disarmament and non proliferation of nuclear weapons;
- elements of a draft declaration of the 2010s as the fourth disarmament decade;
- practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons (to be discussed preferably in 2010 but no later than 2011);
The 2010 session of the UNDC took place from 29th March to 16th April 2010.
Italy chaired Working Group I, with the mandate to elaborate recommendations on nuclear disarmament and non proliferation. In the 2010 session, Working Group I held extensive discussions, inter alia, on nuclear disarmament, non proliferation, peaceful use of nuclear energy, ban on nuclear testing, ban on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, irreversibility, transparency and verifiability in nuclear disarmament and non proliferation and the role of civil society in fostering these goals.
Working Group II, chaired by South Africa, negotiated the draft elements of the fourth disarmament decade without achieving consensus.
Working Groups I and II will resume their deliberation at the 2011 session of the UNDC, together with Working Group III that shall agree on practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons.
Italian and EU statements: