Preparatory Committee for the 1995 Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
NPT/CONF.1995/PC.II/3
21 January 1994
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
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PROGRESS REPORT OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE 1995
CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE TREATY ON THE
NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
(Second session)
INTRODUCTION
1. Pursuant to the decision of the Preparatory Committee at its first session, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 14 May 1993, the Preparatory Committee for the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons held its second session at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 17 to 21 January 1994.
2. The following 118 States Parties participated in the work of the Preparatory Committee at its second session:
Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
3. The composition of the delegations participating in the session is set out in the annex to the present report.
4. At its second session the Preparatory Committee held seven formal and a number of informal meetings.
5. Mr. Prvoslav Davinic, Centre for Disarmament Affairs, Department of Political Affairs, represented the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Mrs. Hannelore Hoppe, Chief, Monitoring, Data Collection and Analysis Section of the Centre for Disarmament Affairs, served as Secretary of the Committee.
Mr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Assistant Director General for External Relations, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Mr. Berhanykun Andemicael, representative of the Director General of IAEA to the United Nations in New York, and Ms. Jan Priest, Head, Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Policy Section, Division of External Relations, IAEA, Vienna, represented the Agency.
I. OPENING OF THE SESSION
6. The second session of the Preparatory Committee was opened by Mr. Jan Hoekema of the Netherlands, Chairman of its first session. Mr. Hoekema noted that, as previously agreed by the Committee, Mr. André Erdös, Ambassador of Hungary, would be the Chairman of the second session. He also informed the Committee that the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries having nominated Nigeria to serve as a Vice-Chairman of the first session and Chairman of a future session, had confirmed that Ambassador Isaac E. Ayewah, Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, would fill those posts. Mr. Hoekema also recalled the Committee's decision that the persons elected, when not serving as Chairmen, would serve as Vice-Chairmen. Mr. Hoekema then invited Mr. Erdös to take his place as Chairman of the second session.
II. DECISIONS ON ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURES
7. At its 1st meeting, on 17 January 1994, the Preparatory Committee adopted the following programme of work:
1. Organization of the Preparatory Committee
1.1 Methods of work
- Decision-making
- Participation
2. Organization of the 1995 Conference
2.1 Rules of procedure
2.2 Financing
2.3 Background documentation
2.4 Agenda
2.5 Final document(s)
3. Other business
8. At its 2nd meeting, the Committee decided that Ambassador Isaac E. Ayewah (Nigeria) would serve as Chairman at the third session of the Committee, scheduled to be held at Geneva from 12 to 16 September 1994.
9. With respect to its own organization and methods of work, the Preparatory Committee decided:
(a) Decision-making. The Committee would make every effort to adopt decisions by consensus. In the event that consensus could not be reached, it would then take decisions in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Fourth Review Conference;
(b) Participation:
(i) States not parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty
Representatives of States not parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty should be allowed, upon request, to attend as observers the meetings of the Committee other than those designated closed meetings, to be seated in the Committee behind their countries' nameplates and to receive documents of the Committee. They should also be entitled, at their own expense, to submit documents to the participants in the Committee;
(ii) Non-governmental organizations
Representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should be allowed, upon request, to attend the meetings of the Committee other than those designated closed meetings, to be seated in the public gallery, to receive documents of the Committee and, at their own expense, to make written material available to the participants in the Committee. They should also be given an opportunity, during the third session of the Preparatory Committee, to hold a briefing for those interested on the margins of the Committee's deliberations and at no additional expense to the latter.
III. ORGANIZATION OF THE 1995 CONFERENCE
10. At its first session, the Committee was advised of two candidatures for the position of President of the 1995 Conference. At its 5th meeting, during the second session, the Committee was informed that Poland, as the candidate of the Eastern European Group of States, was withdrawing in favour of Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, the candidate endorsed by the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. That unifying gesture by Poland was warmly recognized by a number of States parties, which also expressed the wish that Poland be accorded a significant role at the 1995 Conference. The Committee then unanimously endorsed the candidacy of Ambassador Dhanapala for the presidency of the 1995 Conference.
11. At its 2nd meeting, the Committee was informed that, in response to a request made at its first session, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, following consultations with the members of the Preparatory Committee, had decided to nominate Mr. Prvoslav Davinic, Centre for Disarmament Affairs, as provisional Secretary-General of the Conference. The Committee took note of that nomination.
12. During the session, the Preparatory Committee, in conformity with its task to prepare for the 1995 Conference, held a preliminary discussion on some of the issues listed under item 2 of its programme of work. In that regard, the following action was taken:
A. Rules of procedure
13. Following a first reading, the Committee established an informal drafting group to work on the draft rules of procedure as contained in document NPT/CONF.1995/PC.I/CRP.1 of 7 May 1993. The drafting group held two meetings and had a preliminary consideration of a number of written and oral suggestions. Taking account of the preliminary consideration, the Chairman is assembling a compilation of suggestions and textual amendments to facilitate the continuation of the drafting process at the third session of the Preparatory Committee;
B. Financing
14. At its first session the Committee requested the secretariat to provide for its second session an estimate of the costs of the 1995 Conference. In response to that request, the Committee had before it document NPT/CONF.1995/PC.II/2, dated 14 January 1994, entitled "Estimated cost of the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons". The Committee, at its 5th meeting, took note of the estimates, and noted that a revision would be issued in order to reflect changes arising from the appointment of the provisional Secretary-General of the Conference. The revised estimates were presented to the Committee at its 6th meeting;
C. Background documentation
15. The Preparatory Committee decided to invite the Secretary-General of the United Nations to prepare five papers, dealing with the overall implementation of the tenth preambular paragraph of the Non-Proliferation Treaty; articles I and II; article VI; and article VII; and negative and positive security assurances. The papers should cover developments within the United Nations, the Conference on Disarmament and other multilateral and bilateral forums. It invited the Director General of IAEA to prepare comprehensive background documentation on the implementation of articles III, IV and V. It also invited the Director General of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Secretariat of the South Pacific Forum to prepare background papers dealing with their respective activities. The Committee requested that the papers be submitted for its third session.
16. The following general approaches should apply to the proposed papers: all papers must give balanced, objective and factual descriptions of relevant developments, be as short as possible and be easily readable. They must refrain from presenting value judgements. Rather than presenting collections of statements, they should reflect agreements reached, actual unilateral and multilateral measures taken, understandings adopted, formal proposals for agreements made and important political developments directly relevant to any of the foregoing. The papers should focus on the period since the Fourth Review Conference. In order to make them self-contained, references to earlier developments should be included as appropriate.
17. Specifically:
(a) The paper on the tenth preambular paragraph (comprehensive nuclear test ban) should reflect developments in the Conference on Disarmament; developments within the framework of the United Nations; the amendment conference for the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water (partial test ban treaty); and outside developments;
(b) The paper on articles I and II should draw largely on the relevant discussions and results of the first, second, third and fourth review conferences and take account of recent and current developments in the area of nuclear non-proliferation. To the extent necessary, the paper would include cross-references to matters discussed in the paper by IAEA on article III;
(c) The paper on article VI should cover developments regarding cessation of the nuclear arms race, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament;
(d) The paper on article VII should deal with the issue of nuclear-weapon-free zones and contain a brief description of the issue of zones of peace;
(e) The paper on security assurances should deal with both positive and negative security assurances and reflect developments in the Conference on Disarmament, in the United Nations, and proposals within the ambit of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and elsewhere.
18. The Committee agreed to defer decisions on the question of the agenda and final document(s) of the Conference.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
19. Under item 3 of its programme of work, the Committee heard two presentations by IAEA. The first was a dual briefing on the Agency's safeguards system given by Mr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Assistant Director General for External Relations, and Mr. Richard Hooper, Director, Safeguards Department. The second was a briefing on the technical cooperation activities of the Agency presented by Mr. Paulo Barretto, Director, Division, of Technical Cooperation Programmes.
20. Also under item 3 of its programme of work the Committee had an exchange of views on substantive issues relating to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its 1995 Conference.
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