General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

30 November 1987

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

                                                        A/RES/42/27
                                                        84th plenary meeting
                                                        30 November 1987
 
         Urgent need for a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty
 
      The General Assembly,
 
      Convinced that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,
 
      Convinced of the consequent urgent need for an end to the nuclear-arms
 race and the immediate and verifiable reduction and ultimate elimination of
 nuclear weapons,
 
      Convinced, therefore, that an end to all nuclear testing by all States in
 all environments for all time is an essential step in order to prevent the
 qualitative improvement and development of nuclear weapons and further nuclear
 proliferation and to contribute, along with other concurrent efforts to limit
 and reduce nuclear arms, to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons,
 
      Welcoming the joint statement of 17 September 1987 by the Union of Soviet
 Socialist Republics and the United States of America that they have agreed to
 commence negotiations in 1987 on nuclear-testing issues,
 
      Recalling the proposals by the leaders of the six-nation initiative to
 promote an end to nuclear testing, and other recent initiatives to this end,
 
      Convinced that the most effective way to achieve the discontinuance of
 all nuclear tests in all environments for all time is through the conclusion,
 at an early date, of a verifiable, comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty open
 to and capable of attracting the adherence of all States,
 
      Reaffirming the particular responsibilities of the Conference on
 Disarmament in the negotiation of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty,
 
      1.   Reaffirms its conviction that a treaty to achieve the prohibition of
 all nuclear-test explosions by all States in all environments for all time is
 a matter of fundamental importance;
 
      2.   Urges, therefore, that the following actions be taken in order that
 a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty may be concluded at an early date:
 
      (a)  The Conference on Disarmament should initiate substantive work on
 all aspects of a nuclear-test-ban treaty at the beginning of its 1988 session;
 
      (b)  States members of the Conference on Disarmament, in particular the
 nuclear-weapon States, and all other States should co-operate in order to
 facilitate and promote such work;
 
      (c)  The nuclear-weapon States, especially those which possess the most
 important nuclear arsenals, should agree to appropriate verifiable interim
 measures with a view to realizing a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty;
 
      (d)  Those nuclear-weapon States which have not yet done so should adhere
 to the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space
 and under Water;
 
      3.   Also urges the Conference on Disarmament:
 
      (a)  To take immediate steps for the establishment, with the widest
 possible participation, of an international seismic monitoring network with a
 view to the further development of its potential to monitor and verify
 compliance with a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty;
 
      (b)  In this context, to take into account the progress achieved by the
 Ad Hoc Group of Scientific Experts to Consider International Co-operative
 Measures to Detect and Identify Seismic Events, including the exchange of
 wave-form data, and other relevant initiatives by individual States and groups
 of States;
 
      (c)  To initiate detailed investigation of other measures to monitor and
 verify compliance with such a treaty, including an international network to
 monitor atmospheric radioactivity;
 
      4.   Calls upon the Conference on Disarmament to report to the General
 Assembly at its forty-third session on progress made;
 
      5.   Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-third
 session the item entitled "Urgent need for a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban
 treaty".