Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
10/31/2014
The United States unsuccessfully opposed a draft resolution calling for steps to reduce the high-alert status of nuclear weapon systems during a meeting of the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly. The United States also voted against a resolution welcoming U.N. Secretary-General consideration of a range of views on disarmament, as well as a resolution calling for the acceleration of disarmament implementation—including compliance with international and humanitarian law in their disarmament agendas, according to a U.N. release. The nonbinding resolutions adopted by the First Committee are expected to be submitted for approval of the wider General Assembly in early December, according to UNGA spokesperson Fanny Langella.
Resolution L. 22 called for states to address nuclear alert and readiness levels at the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Speaking for the U.S., French and British decisions to vote against the draft resolution, U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood said the three countries disagreed with language central to the resolution that suggested that current readiness levels increased chances of the accidental use of nuclear weapons, the release stated. All three countries have reduced operational readiness and alert levels since the early 1990s, and the weapon systems are no longer targeted against any specific state, Wood said. After writing in language urging nuclear-weapon states to engage non-nuclear-weapon states and consider their safety in further reducing the alert status of nuclear weapon systems, the committee approved the draft by a vote of 163 to four. Russia dissented along with the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
The United States also joined France, the United Kingdom and Russia in voting against another resolution (L. 21) underscoring the validity of disarmament proposals from “civil society, academia and research” and the impacts those proposals could have on moving multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations forward, “as demonstrated during the work of the Open-ended Working Group.” Wood expressed concerns that the resolution’s scope was too narrow, focusing on the process of disarmament while ignoring the two other NPT pillars. “Our three countries delivered both national and joint statements,” Wood said. “Unfortunately, as was the case last year, this resolution again does not reflect views we expressed at that time; nor in our opinion, the views of other states that participated. We believe that nuclear proliferation and noncompliance, by a few states with their respective obligations constitute the most serious threat the international security and peace, and therefore regret that the high-level meeting did not deal with both nuclear proliferation and disarmament in a balanced manner. It is for these reasons that we will vote against this resolution.” The resolution was approved by a vote of 152 to four.
In a resolution titled, “Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments,” Wood noted a lack of language describing a step-by-step disarmament approach and added that the resolution created impedimentary parallel processes for disarmament. The resolution calls for all parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to strictly adhere to the treaty’s obligations, and acknowledges the “catastrophic humanitarian consequences” of nuclear weapons while calling all states to comply with international humanitarian law. The committee approved the agreement by a vote of 166 to seven, with North Korea, France, India, Israel, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States voting against the resolution.
CTBT-Related Resolution Supported by U.S.
The First Committee on Oct. 29 approved 14 total draft resolutions related to nuclear weapons. One resolution urged adoption of a legally binding instrument to insure non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of nuclear weapons. That resolution called for all states to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and urged North Korea not to undertake any further nuclear tests. The draft resolution was approved by the United States, as well as 162 other countries, with one country, North Korea, dissenting.
Also among the approved texts was a resolution calling for an international convention banning the use or threat of the use of nuclear weapons “under any circumstances.” It was approved by a vote of 123 to 48. The First Committee also approved drafts on a nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere and a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, as well as treaties banning fissile material and establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia.
