Delegation of Japan to the CD: UNFC: Overview

Delegation’s Statements

UN Web Page on the UN First Committee

Background	The First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the United Nations Disarmament Commission(UNDC) are subsidiary organs of the UNGA, where the issues of disarmament and non-proliferation are discussed collectively among all the members of the UN. The First Committee is held in October after two weeks of the general debate sessions by the GA. The UN First Committee discusses all topics related to disarmament and international security.
Characteristics	Due to decision from the first Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD1) of the United Nations General Assembly held in 1978, it was decided that the First Committee should deal “only with questions of disarmament and related international security questions”, which has remained its primary focus ever since. Every year the Committee adopts a large number of disarmament-related resolutions, which are of significant importance for indicating trends in disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as issues ripe for negotiation.
Term	Five weeks every Autumn after the General Debates of the UN General Assembly. The next term is from the 3rd October to the 2nd November 2016.
Member States	All UN Member States
Japan's Resolutions	Nuclear Disarmament Resolution: Since 1994, Japan has annually submitted a resolution on nuclear disarmament, which is consistently adopted by an overwhelming majority of UN member states. The content of the resolution is revised every five years based on the outcomes of the NPT Review Conference. With the adoption of the Final Document of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, Japan’s latest resolution was revised to be more comprehensive as well as to call for concrete actions by the international community for “a world without nuclear weapons.” At the First Committee of the 67th session of the UNGA in 2012, the draft resolution “United action towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons” (English) (99 co-sponsor states) was again adopted by an overwhelming majority of UN member states (support: 159, oppose: 1, abstain: 12).