The Conference on Disarmament (CD) was established in 1979 as the result of the First Special Session of the General Assembly devoted to Disarmament (held in 1978). Before the CD other negotiating forums had their venue in Geneva: the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament (1960), the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (1962-68) and the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (1969-1978).
Currently, the CD is the single multilateral negotiating body on disarmament. The CD has 65 States members that gather every year in three sessions (January to March, May to July and August to September). The CD conducts its work by consensus in order to guarantee a wide support to the agreements that it reaches. Among its achievements, including those of its predecessors are the “Biological Weapons Convention” (1972), the “Chemical Weapons Convention” (1993), the “Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty” (1996) and the “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons” (1968).
The Conference on Disarmament has its own rules of procedure, it is funded from the UN regular budget, holds its meetings at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, and receives logistic support from the United Nations Office in this city. Its annual reports are submitted to the United Nations General Assembly.
Colombia’s participation in the Conference on Disarmament
For a long time time the Disarmament Conference membership remained in 38 States, until the 17th June 1996 (Decision CD/1356 of September 21st 1995) by which Colombia was accepted together with 22 other countries as a member of this forum.
During the Presidency of the Disarmament Conference, held by Colombia from May 30th to June 24th of 2011, the Permanent Mission focused its work on promoting an examination of the state of the work of the Conference and the possible action paths for its strengthening. Colombia produced the document “Thoughts on the current state of the Conference and how to strengthen it”, which is published as an official document of the Conference (CD/1913).
Colombia also assumed as Coordinator of the G-21 from 26 May to 22 June 2014 (Regional Group for consultation within the CD)
PDF (Spanish): Statement by Colombia’s PR at the CD 18/ 03/ 2014
PDF (Spanish): Statement by Colombia’s PR at the CD 20/05/14