Amelia du Rand and Dominique Dye, Junior Researchers, Arms Management Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)

The 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security met in New York from 6 October – 4 November 2008. The First Committee is a sub-committee of the UN General Assembly, which comprises all 192 members of the UN and meets annually in October for a four to five week session. It is a consensus-building body, where member states work towards reaching common understandings on disarmament and non-proliferation norms of behaviour. However, country statements often reveal important fault lines in the debate on disarmament, which often inhibit progress in disarmament, non-proliferation, peace and security.

This year a number of African states actively participated in the process of drafting resolutions, and many were lead sponsors especially in relation to nuclear weapons and the trade in arms. Several African states including Benin, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Libya and Malawi sponsored an important resolution on the establishment of effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon states that nuclear weapon states would refrain from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against them. The voting results for this resolution were 110 votes for, 1 vote against and 55 abstentions.

South Africa, who abstained from voting, explained that although the country believes that “security assurances rightfully belong to those states that have foresworn the nuclear-weapons option, as opposed to those who still prefer to keep their options open”, security assurances should be provided under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).  South Africa also suggested that a discussion about security assurances should be conducted under the auspices of the NPT in order to encourage countries to join the NPT, to the benefit of current NPT members.

A noteworthy resolution, entitled: ‘Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments’ was sponsored by members of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), which includes Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. This resolution is significant because it focuses specifically on the NPT, and seeks to stress the importance of the universalisation of the NPT in order to achieve total nuclear disarmament. The resolution also reaffirms the NAC’s position that “issues of nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation are mutually reinforcing processes requiring urgent irreversible progress on both fronts”.

Another important resolution that was put forward for voting was one calling for the development of a treaty to establish common international standards to regulate the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons, commonly referred to as the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).  The ATT initiative was started over a decade ago and has since continued to gain momentum and prominence in disarmament circles. Supporters of the initiative argue that it is necessary to regulate the legal arms trade to, amongst other things, minimise irresponsible arms transfers and promote transparency in arms procurements.

At the First Committee this year, 147 of the UN’s member states voted in favour of the draft ATT resolution. Of these, 36 African countries voted in favour of the resolution, with only Zimbabwe (along with the United States) voting against it. Egypt and Libya, together with a number of Middle Eastern countries, abstained from voting, arguing that an ATT should be pursued through a consensus-based approach (and not a vote). They also raised several concerns surrounding an ATT, one being the potential for it to be politicised in a manner that negatively impacted on the interests of developing countries.

Tanzania, while expressing support for the draft resolution, did so on the understanding that specific reference was to be made to small arms and light weapons (SALW) in its operative paragraphs. Several other African states also reiterated their commitment to curbing the illicit proliferation of SALW, as these remain the weapons primarily used in conflicts on the continent.

Prior to the approval of the draft ATT resolution, States voted on three of its operational paragraphs, all of which were adopted. These paragraphs call for the establishment of an open-ended working group that would meet in February 2009 for a planning session to prepare for future substantive sessions. The group is also tasked with assessing areas where consensus could be developed for inclusion into an eventual arms trade treaty.

There has been significant support and consensus on several topics at this year’s First Committee, particularly on issues relating to nuclear disarmament and the need for stricter controls over arms transfers.  However, it is now left to see whether support for new international disarmament measures will culminate in any action or whether it is merely all talk.