Follow-Up of the special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament

The question of follow-up received a great deal of attention at the special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. Adequate continuation of the work of the session is ensured in several different ways. Several provisions of the Final Document, in the section dealing with machinery, entrust both the deliberative and negotiating organs, each in its own sphere of competence, with the task of giving practical effect to the Programme of Action. The Final Document also provides for follow-up of those numerous proposals and suggestions submitted to the General Assembly at its special session which, due to their complexity, were not incorporated into the Programme of Action, but were listed in paragraph 125 of the Document as an integral part of the work of the special session which deserved to be studied further and more thoroughly. One of these provisions requests the Secretary-General to transmit those proposals, together with all the official records of the special session, to the appropriate deliberative and negotiating organs in accordance with recommendations which the Assembly may adopt at its thirty-third session. That provision facilitated the adoption of the Final Document by consensus, since the sponsors of various proposals were thus assured that their initiatives would be taken up again and therefore they did not press for definitive decisions on them at the special session. The Document also includes provision for periodic review of the realization of the goals and objectives set forth by the special session. In view of the central role and primary responsibility of the United Nations in the area of disarmament, that function was entrusted to the General Assembly which would include in the provisional agenda of its thirty-third and subsequent sessions an item entitled “Review of the implementation of the recommendations and decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its tenth special session”.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament