Page 108 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International

established the Atomic Energy Commission, composed of States represented
on the Security Council and Canada, with the task of making specific proposals
for the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all major
weapons of mass destruction.

In 1961, by resolution 1722 (XVI), the General Assembly endorsed an
agreement reached between the Soviet Union and the United States on the
composition of а disarmament committee which would undertake negotiations
towards general and complete disarmament. This Eighteen-Nation Committee
on Disarmament (ENDC) worked on confidence-building (collateral) measures
and on the discontinuance of nuclear-weapon tests, which was considered а
priority measure. The first Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on
Disarmament was convened in Geneva in March 1962. The ENDC was
enlarged in 1969 by the addition of eight countries and its name was changed
to the "Conference of the Committee on Disarmament" (CCD). In 1975, it
was further enlarged by five more countries.

In the period from 1962 to 1978, the multilateral negotiating body con-
tributed to setting the stage for what later became the Treaty Banning Nuclear
Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water (Partial
Test-Ban Treaty) of 1963, and the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activi-
ties of States in the Exploration and Use of outer Space, including the Moon
and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty) of 1967. It had а decisive role
in the drafting and conclusion of four other multilateral agreements: the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non­proliferation Treaty) of
1968; the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons
and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-bed and the Ocean Floor
and in the Subsoil Thereof (Sea-bed Treaty) of 1971; the Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological
(Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weap-
ons Convention) of 1972; and the Convention on the Prohibition of Military
or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENМOD
Convention) of 1977.

The Conference on Disarmament

At the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarma-
ment, in 1978, the Assembly reaffirmed in the Final Document of that session
that the role of the United Nations should be strengthened by making the dis-
armament deliberative and negotiating bodies more effective. А multilateral

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