Conference on Disarmament

Introduction

South Africa became a member of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on 17 June 1996. The Conference on Disarmament is the sole multilateral disarmament negotiating body of the international community and has an autonomous yet special relationship with the United Nations. The CD adopts it own rules of procedure and agenda taking into account the recommendation of the UN General Assembly. It reports to the General Assembly annually or more frequently when appropriate, its budget is included in that of the UN, it meets on UN premises and is serviced by UN personnel. The CD conducts its work by consensus and has negotiated the following multilateral agreements: the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Agenda of the Conference on Disarmament

The agenda of the CD includes:

cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament;
prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters;
prevention of an arms race in outer space ( PAROS );
effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons;
new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons; radiological weapons;
a comprehensive programme of disarmament;
prohibition of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;
transparency in armaments; and
consideration and adoption of the annual report and any other report, as appropriate, to the UN General Assembly .

Membership

There are currently 66 States that are members of the CD after two expansions in 1996 and 2001. In the former expansion 23 countries, including South Africa , were admitted and in 2001 a further five States gained admission. South Africa had become an observer at the CD following the country's democratisation and re-entry into the multilateral field in 1994. While there was a long waiting list of countries trying to become members, successive Presidents of the CD had during 1995/6 narrowed the list down to 23 countries, which provided a fair representation regarding geographic and political distribution. Ambassador Selebi, at the time South Africa 's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Conference on Disarmament, maintained a high profile on the expansion issue but unfortunately this list included Iraq which was seen, particularly by the United States , as a potential stumbling block for the CD due to its consensus rules of procedure. Progress on expansion had seemingly hit a dead-end.

The United States , like the majority of States, had placed a high priority on concluding the negotiations of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and in early April 1996 President Bill Clinton wrote a letter to President Mandela requesting South Africa 's support at CD to conclude the negotiations successfully. A letter was copied to the Disarmament Directorate at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria . Seizing the opportunity a letter of response was signed by President Mandela and delivered to the Americans within 24 hours. The letter explained that South Africa shared the view of the United States concerning the importance of getting the CTBT concluded, but pointed out that South Africa was not able to assist as it only had observer status at the Conference on Disarmament due to US refusal to permit its membership in an expansion package.

President Mandela's letter hit the right note with President Clinton who instructed that the issue be sorted out immediately. Consequently ¹two officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs travelled to Washington where they negotiated with senior national security advisors over two days to broker a deal. The result was a package deal that was submitted to the other 22 countries seeking CD membership and on their acceptance resulted in the CD taking a decision to admit all 23 countries (including Iraq ) as members on 17 June 1996. The deal essentially disallowed the new members from blocking consensus in the following 24 month period – a procedural aspect with little real substantive effect.

Developments and South Africa 's role

The initial excitement of becoming a full CD member in 1996 has been tempered by the inability of the Conference to get down to serious negotiations since 1998. This has not been due to any role played by the new members but rather to the intransigence of the five nuclear weapon States to commit themselves to dealing with the issues on the CD's programme of work. This despite the fact that there is an international consensus to proceed to negotiations on specific issues, for instance, the negotiation of a treaty banning the production of fissile materials used in nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices. Strategic manoeuvring and the prevailing relations among the five nuclear weapon States, attempts to link progress in one area with parallel progress in other areas and the international milieu within which the CD operates have contributed to the deadlock at the CD. Factors like the unilateralism of the Bush Administration, China's growing strategic significance, Russia's declining superpower status, Europe's growing security responsibilities, the exercise of the nuclear option by India and Pakistan, North Korea's ambivalent nuclear status, technological advances, especially in the possibility of space as a battleground, terrorism and the threat of weapons of mass destruction have, among others, contributed to the political environment and global security dimensions influencing the CD.

South Africa has attempted to use its growing capacity and skill on disarmament issues and new found international status to influence developments at the CD. These attempts have focussed on trying to break the deadlock by presenting realistic and achievable proposals that can bridge the differences between the various political and security blocs as well as between developed and developing countries.

South Africa has been at the forefront of efforts to address nuclear disarmament at the CD. On a national basis South Africa has proposed language to break the deadlock; in the context of the New Agenda Coalition it has worked with partner countries to ensure that the outcome of the thirteen steps on nuclear disarmament agreed to at the 2000 NPT Review Conference are, where relevant, dealt with at the CD – especially the negotiation of a fissile material treaty – and politically as a member of the Group of 21 (Non-Aligned Movement and observer States at the CD originally numbering 21 but currently 33) upheld the principled positions of the NAM while moderating its tactics to promote engagement with the nuclear weapon States rather than easy rejection.

South Africa has also argued against and opposed attempts to negotiate on issues like anti-personnel mines and small arms proliferation at the CD where developing countries, those directly affected by these weapons, are not represented. This has contributed to these issues being taken up in more representative and transparent fora like the 1997 Oslo Diplomatic Conference to ban anti-personnel landmines and at the United Nations in New York where the international conference on small arms was held in 2001.

South Africa 's most significant contributions at the CD, besides the success on membership expansion, are the following:

Nuclear Disarmament

On 28 January 1998 Ambassador Jackie Selebi, proposed a draft decision ²(CD/1483) for the CD to “ establish an ad hoc committee on nuclear disarmament to deliberate upon practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons as well as to identify if and when one or more such steps should be the subject of negotiations in the Conference”. Although this was a moderate proposal that would permit nuclear disarmament to be addressed (a concern of the developing countries) and did not present the nuclear weapon States with a deadline for negotiations, it nevertheless failed to obtain a consensus.

Rules of Procedure

On 28 January 1999 Peter Goosen, South Africa 's Deputy Permanent Representative, presented a legal opinion ³(CD/1564) “Interpretation of the Rules of Procedure of the Conference on Disarmament”. This proposal was aimed at removing the procedural obstacles – claimed by some States - to adopting the CD Programme of Work and thereby moving the process out of the deadlock and forward to negotiations.

Negotiation of a fissile material treaty

On 28 May 2002, Thomas Markram, South Africa 's Deputy Permanent Representative presented a Working Paper ⁴(CD/1671) “The Possible Scope and Requirements of the Fissile Materials Treaty (FMT)”. Acknowledging that the CD was in the short term incapable of getting down to negotiations, South Africa tried to move the discussions and debate from political monologues and wrangling over procedural issues to addressing the important issues on the CD's agenda in a substantive manner in order to lay the groundwork for possible future negotiations.

Footnotes

1. Peter Goosen, then Deputy Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Geneva and Thomas Markram, then Deputy Director for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
2. See document section for the draft decision
3. See document section for the legal opinion
4. See document section for the Working Paper