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1 Jerzy Zaleski, Transparency in Armaments: Consideration of the Item in the CD 1 (2011)

handle is hein.unl/unaadr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Transparency in Armaments:
Consideration of the Item in the CD
May 2011
The CD Discussion Series
Between December 2010 and July 2011, the UNIDIR project The Conference on
Disarmament: Breaking the Ice and the Geneva Forum are organizing a series of
thematic discussions to examine the myths and realities of the CD-as well as the
critical challenges facing it-with the aim to increase understanding of the history,
processes and issue areas of this unique negotiating forum.
Background paper by Jerzy Zaleski for the discussion New forms of WMD,
transparency in armaments, and a comprehensive programme of disarmament-
obsolete or ignored? organized by UNIDIR and the Geneva Forum, 6 May 2011
Origins of the item Transparency in armaments
1.    One of the reasons for introducing the idea of transparency in armaments
by the members of the European Community and Japan at the forty-sixth session
of the General Assembly was the idea of deterring the destabilizing accumulation
of conventional arms through non-discriminatory measures. While recognizing the
inherent right of states to individual or collective self-defence against an armed
attack, the sponsors emphasized the principle of undiminished security for all
states at the lowest possible level of armaments and believed that the extensive
accumulation of arms could become an issue of concern to neighbouring states.
Recalling the example of the 1990 Gulf War, the sponsors argued that no single
state, especially in areas of tension, could strive for levels of armaments that no
longer bear any relationship to its self-defence needs.'
2.    Resolution 46/36L on transparency in armaments, adopted at that session,
had four operative paragraphs addressed to the Conference on Disarmament.
Two of them contained specific requests giving the Conference a mandate for
1 See introduction of the draft resolution on Transparency in armaments by the representative of
the Netherlands (General Assembly, Verbatim Record of the 26th Meeting, UN document A/C.1/46/
PV.26, 5 November 1991, pp. 14-20) and by the representative of Japan (ibid., pp. 21-3).
Until October 2009, Jerzy Zaleski served as the Senior Political Affairs Officer in the Geneva Branch
of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, acting as the Secretary of the Conference on
Disarmament and a senior member of the Secretariat of the Review Conferences of States Parties
to the NPT, and earlier also to the Review Conferences of the BWC and CCW. In 2005 he was elected
the Secretary-General of the 2005 NPT Review Conference. He also supervised the United Nations
Programme of Fellowships on Disarmament. Prior to entering the United Nations Office in Geneva, he
was the Head of the Political Division of the Department of the UN System in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Poland. His responsibilities included disarmament, arms control and international security
and the UN peacekeeping operations; he also acted as the Executive Secretary of the Polish delegations
to the UN General Assembly sessions. He holds a master degree in electronics and computer sciences
and a postgraduate diploma in international relations. Zaleski is currentlyan independent disarmament
consultant.

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