Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
Disarmament
- © United Nations
The opening words of the the UN Charter express the determination "to save suceeding generations from the scourge of war". Since its establishement the UN has been an ongoing forum for disarmament negotiations and studies and the very first resolution of the General Assembly at its first meeting in 1946 ,1(I) addresses the concerns of nuclear danger and disarmament.
The General Assembly considers all questions on international security and disarmament and in recent years more than 60 resolutions on disarmament are
passed annually. In addition, the General Assembly has held three special sessions on disarmament.
The Disarmament Commission (UNDC), under the General Assembly, is composed of all UN members and meets annually to consider and make recommendations on various on problems in the field of disarmament and to make recommmendations to the General Assembly.
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva, is the single international forum for negotiations of multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. It has 66 members representing all areas of the world, including the five major nuclear-weapon states. It reports its activities to the General Assembly annually. It has successfully negotiated many important conventions on disarmament. The Conference's annual session is divided into three parts starting in January.
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) serves as an advisory body to the Secretary-General. It promotes disarmament efforts and preventive measures, supports the implementation of disarmament conventions and practical measures after conflict and provides information on United Nations disarmament efforts. Through its Regional Disarmament Branch DDA oversees and coordinates three regional disarmament centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Documentation
UN Charter, Articles 1, 11, 14.
A web portal to disarmament issues with references to full text reports and documents is posted at the UN official web site, section UNODA, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.
Yearbook of the United Nations, Part One: Political and security Questions. Chapter VII Disarmament provides an excellent overview of the disarmament efforts of the United Nations with a detailed subject index. A complete collection of yearbooks is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
The United Nations and nuclear non-proliferation covers the UN work on nuclear disarmament during forty years with a compilation of full text documents.
Major disarmament resolutions and decisions from 1997 onwards with voting information are posted at the UN official web site, section Peace and Security, Disarmament Resources.
Documentationen from the General Assembly Special Sessions on Disarmament is included in the series Supplements to the Official Records of the General Assembly:
10th Special session 1978, GAOR 10th spec. sess. Supplement no. 4
12th Special session 1982, GAOR 12th spec. sess. Supplement no. 6
15th Special session 1988, GAOR 14th spec. sess. Supplement no. 6
A complete collection of supplements in print is included in the UN collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
A list of special sessions with information about theme, date and documents is posted at the official web site of the General Assembly, section sessions, Special sessions.
United Nations Disarmament Commission submits an annual report to the General Assembly. The report is published as no. 42 in the documentary series Supplements to the Official Records of the Economic and Social Council. A complete collection of these supplements in print will be found in the UN Collection of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and in the libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. The supplements for recent years can be accessed from the UN official web site, section UN Documentation Centre, General Assembly.
United Nations Disarmament Yearbook provides an extensive overview of UN disarmament activities. The documents from the Conference on Disamament carry the symbol CD/. A full text version is posted online at the UNODA official web site.
An annual report is submitted to the General Assembly. Full text reports from 1993 onwards are posted at the official web site of the Conference on Disarmament.
Meeting records from the Conference on Disarmament carry the symbol CD/PV.meeting no.. Meeting records from 1993 onwards can be retrieved from the United Nations Official Document System - ODS - and for recent years - through the official web site of the Conference on Disarmament.
Disarmament Forum is a quarterly journal published by UNIDIR. It is available online from 2000 onwards at the UNIDIR official web site.
Databases and Indexes
Research reports and publications on disarmament can be retrieved through the UNIDIR database.
To enhance the level of transparency in arms transfers the General Assembly passed a resolution in 1991 which requested the Secretary-General to maintain a register where governments provide information on a voluntary basis on their transfers to other states of major weapons systems, military holdings, procurement through national production and relevant policies. A total of 170 Member States have reported to the register. The data are compiled and published in the database United Nations Register of Conventional Arms posted at the UN official web site, section Disarmament. To provide increased transparency of the Arms Register UNODA launched in 2011 the database The Global Reported Arms Trade presenting data in a searchable, easily accessible manner.
Full text conventions with signatures and ratifications are posted as Multilateral Arms Regulation and Disarmarmament Agreements at the UN official web site, section Peace and Security, Disarmament, Status of Treaties. In addition, the Agreements can be accessed from the database UN Treaty Collection online.
A number of web portals on disamament issues are posted at the UN official website, section Peace and Security, Disarmament:
More themes are included in the Index of the UN Disarmament Website.
A web portal to peace and security issues linking UN main bodies and focal points and full text documents and reports is posted at the Official web site of the United Nations, section Global Issues. Disarmament.
Mine Information Network provides recources on UN mine action.
Military Expenditures Database is a register of military spending based on yearly reports from the member countries.
An Index of all UN web sites on disarmament issues is posted at the UN official web site.