Читать книгу Disarmament and Decommissioning in the Nuclear Domain - Jean-Claude Amiard - Страница 13

Five states have carried out their first atomic tests: the United States on July 16, 1945, the Soviet Union on August 29, 1949, the United Kingdom on October 3, 1952, France on February 13, 1960 and China on October 16, 1964.

In order to prevent the number of states possessing nuclear weapons from becoming too large, the United Nations has been concerned with nuclear disarmament from the outset, and four UN structures are particularly responsible for this task: the Security Council, the Disarmament Commission, the Conference on Disarmament and the Office for Disarmament Affairs [GIL 18].

The Security Council has primary responsibility under the UN Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is composed of five permanent members (China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for a period of two years. The general organization of the UN is shown in Figure 1.1.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) was established in 1952, within the framework of the Security Council, by General Assembly Resolution 502 (VI), to deal with disarmament issues. However, it only met occasionally after 1959. In 1978, the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament established a new Disarmament Commission as a subsidiary organ of the Assembly, composed of all UN member states of the Organization. It was established as a deliberative body to consider various disarmament issues and monitor the implementation of the relevant decisions and recommendations adopted at the special session. It sits in New York for three weeks each year (usually in early spring). It considers a limited number of agenda items on a three-year cycle and submits an annual report to the General Assembly [GIL 18].

Figure 1.1. The United Nations organization. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/amiard/disarmament.zip

The Conference on Disarmament is the only multilateral forum for negotiating disarmament agreements. It is composed of 65 permanent members who hold three sessions a year in Geneva (usually January to March, May to June and August to September). It operates on the basis of consensus to ensure full support for the agreements reached. It has completed negotiations on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, but has not yet entered into force [GIL 18].

The Office for Disarmament Affairs, established in 1982, works to promote disarmament and non-proliferation and to strengthen disarmament regimes. Part of its work focuses on nuclear weapons [GIL 18] (Figure 1.2).

The first treaty limiting the use of weapons (particularly nuclear weapons), the Antarctic Treaty, signed in Washington, entered into force on June 23, 1961. This treaty stipulates that the Antarctic is an area exclusively reserved for peaceful purposes and prohibits all activities of a military nature, such as military maneuvers and the testing of any kind of weapon.

Figure 1.2. The various UN bodies working on non-proliferation and disarmament. UNODA: United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/amiard/disarmament.zip