Institutional aspects

The framework for dealing with questions of disarmament, both within and outside the United Nations, has changed over the years in response to efforts to address more adequately the concerns of the international community. Under the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly and the Security Council are the main organs dealing with matters of disarmament and the regulation of armaments. The existing disarmament machinery, as set out in the Final Document of the General Assembly at its first special session on disarmament, in 1978, has remained essentially the same. It consists of the General Assembly and its relevant subsidiary bodies, namely the First Committee and the Disarmament Commission, and the Conference on Disarmament—the “single multilateral negotiating forum” on disarmament of the international community. In addition, questions of disarmament are dealt with in other institutional frameworks established on the basis of multilateral, regional and bilateral agreements.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament