The United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding nuclear weapons prohibition will begin its session next month in New York. The conference held its first organizational meeting last week, where it adopted a draft provisional agenda and elected Elayne Whyte Gomez of Costa Rica as conference president.
The U.N. General Assembly First Committee voted last October to begin negotiations on a treaty banning all nuclear weapons, an effort that was strongly opposed by the nations that are simultaneously the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and recognized nuclear-weapon states: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
A total of 123 countries voted for the resolution; 38 countries voted in opposition and 16 abstained. The United States, one of the countries that opposed the resolution, has long resisted this approach and has called instead for step-by-step reductions in nuclear stockpiles rather than an outright prohibition.
Nevertheless, the U.N. conference will hold its substantive session for negotiations from March 27 to 31 and June 15 to July 7. The conference will then submit a report on its progress to the General Assembly’s 72nd session in September. The U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs has also launched a new website for the ban treaty effort.
