NPT Documents

Preparatory Committee for the 1995 Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
NPT/CONF.1995/PC.I/2
14 May 1993
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

(First session)

INTRODUCTION

1. At its forty-seventh session, the General Assembly of the United Nations, in its resolution 47/52 A of 9 December 1992, took note of the decision of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, following appropriate consultations, to form a preparatory committee for a conference to review the operation of the Treaty and to decide on its extension, as called for in article X, paragraph 2, and also as provided for in article VIII, paragraph 3, of the Treaty.

2. The Assembly also noted that the Preparatory Committee would be open to all the parties to the Treaty and, if the Preparatory Committee so decided at the outset of its first session, to States not parties, as observers, and would hold its first meeting in New York from 10 to 14 May 1993.

3. Accordingly, the following 128 States Parties participated in the work of the Preparatory Committee at its first session, which was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 14 May 1993:

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, 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.

4. The composition of the delegations participating in the session is set out in the annex to the present report.

5. At its first session, the Preparatory Committee held 9 meetings.

6. Mr. Prvoslav Davinic, Director of the Office for Disarmament Affairs, Department of Political Affairs, represented the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Ms. Silvana F. da Silva, Chief, Arms Register, Data Collection and Monitoring Branch of the Office for Disarmament Affairs, served as Secretary of the Committee. Mr. Mohamed Elbaradei, Director, Division of External Relations, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Ms. Jan Priest, Head, Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Policy Section, Division of External Relations, IAEA, Vienna, and Mr. Berhanykun Andemicael, Representative of the Director-General of IAEA to the United Nations in New York, represented the Agency.

I. OPENING OF THE SESSION

7. The first session of the Preparatory Committee was opened by Mr. Prvoslav Davinic, Representative of the Secretary-General. The Committee unanimously selected Mr. Jan Hoekema of the Netherlands to serve as Chairman of its first session. The Committee also decided that Mr. André Erdös, Ambassador of Hungary, would be Chairman of its second session. Subsequently, the Committee was informed that the Group of Non-Aligned States had nominated Nigeria to serve as Vice-Chairman of the current session and Chairman of a future session. It was further decided that the persons elected, when not serving as Chairmen, would serve as Vice-Chairmen.

II. DECISIONS ON ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURES

8. At its first meeting, on 10 May 1993, the Preparatory Committee adopted the following programme of work:

1. Organization of the Preparatory Committee

1.1 Agenda

1.2 Composition of the Bureau

1.3 Dates for further session(s)

1.4 Methods of work

- Decision-making
- Participation
- Working languages
- Records
- Progress reports
- Press releases

2. Organization of the 1995 Conference

2.1 Dates and venue

2.2 Rules of procedure

2.3 Financing

2.4 Background documentation

2.5 Agenda

2.6 Final document(s)

3. Other business

9. With respect to its own organization and procedures, the Preparatory Committee decided:

(a) That its second session would be held in New York from 17 to 21 January 1994; that the third session would be held at Geneva from 12 to 16 September 1994; and that the fourth session would be held in New York from 23 to 27 January 1995;

(b) That its working languages would be Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish;

(c) That there should be summary records of the meetings of its last session and that only records of decisions would be kept for the other sessions;

(d) That a progress report would be made for each session, and be distributed to all States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;

(e) That a press release would be issued at United Nations Headquarters in New York and at the United Nations Office at Geneva at the conclusion of each session of the Preparatory Committee.

10. The Committee decided to invite the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in consultation with the members of the Preparatory Committee, to nominate an official to act as provisional Secretary-General of the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a nomination which would later be confirmed by the Conference itself.

11. The Committee discussed the issues of decision-making and participation in the Committee and agreed to defer a decision on those items to a later session.

III. CONSIDERATION OF THE WORK OF THE 1995 CONFERENCE

12. At the 6th meeting of the Committee, Mr. Aivars Baumunis, Ambassador of Latvia, on behalf of the States Parties to the NPT which belong to the Group of Eastern European States, informed the Committee of the endorsement by that Group of the candidature of Poland for the Presidency of the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. At the same meeting, Mr. Mohammad Jusuf, representative of Indonesia, on behalf of the States members of the Movement of Non-aligned Countries that are Parties to the NPT, and in accordance with the decision taken by the September 1992 summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, informed the Committee of the candidacy of Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka for the Presidency of the 1995 Conference.

13. 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 questions listed under item 2 of its programme of work.

14. In this regard, the following decisions were taken:

(a) Dates and venue of the Conference

The Committee decided that the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would take place in New York, from 17 April to 12 May 1995.

(b) Financing

The Committee decided to request the Secretariat to provide for its second session an estimate of the costs of the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its preparation.

15. The Committee agreed to defer a decision on the rules of procedure, background documentation, the agenda and the final document(s) of the Conference to a later session.

IV. OTHER BUSINESS

16. Under item 3 of the Committee's programme of work, a number of statements were made by delegations addressing substantive issues relating to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its 1995 Conference.