Comprehensive programme of disarmament

As the United Nations membership became aware that the ultimate goal of general and complete disarmament was unattainable in the near future , the emphasis in their disarmament efforts after the mid-1960s focused more and more on partial measures. However, the interest in a comprehensive approach was not abandoned and in the late 1960s it received a new impetus. In the introduction to his annual report on the work of the Organization for 1968-1969, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, included a proposal for the designation of the 1970s as a Disarmament Decade and , in that context, expressed the view that, utilizing the provisional agenda agreed upon for the newly expanded CCD, the General Assembly could establish a specific programme and timetable for dealing with all aspects of arms limitation and disarmament. The Assembly considered that idea and, disappointed with the meagre results in the ongoing disarmament negotiations due, at least in part, to the continuing unfavourable political climate, it adopted resolution 2602 E (XXIV) on 16 December 1969. By tha t resolution, it declared the 1970s as a Disarmament Decade and , interalia, requested the CCD, while continuing intensive negotiations with a view to reaching the widest possible agreement on collateral measures, to work out at the same time a comprehensive programme dealing with all aspects of the problem of the cessation of the arms race and general an d complete disarmament under effective international control, which, in the words of the resolution, “would provide the Conference with a guideline to chart the course of its further work and its negotiations” .

Related Subject(s): Disarmament