General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

15 December 1989

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

                                                        A/RES/44/107
                                                        81st plenary meeting
                                                        15 December 1989
 
          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 also 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 further that an end to 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 their further
 proliferation and to contribute, along with other concurrent efforts to reduce
 nuclear arms, to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons,
 
      Recognizing the recent progress made in the negotiations between the
 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, as
 reflected in their joint statement of 23 September 1989, towards improved
 verification arrangements and the ratification of the Treaty between the
 United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the
 Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapons Tests, signed on 3 July 1974, and
 the Treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet
 Socialist Republics on Underground Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes,
 signed on 28 May 1976, and urging both countries to complete that process,
 
      Welcoming the ongoing implementation of the Treaty between the United
 States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the
 Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles and the
 agreement in principle on and further progress made towards an agreement for
 50 per cent reductions in their strategic nuclear forces,
 
      Recalling the disarmament document adopted by the Ninth Conference of
 Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held at Belgrade from
 4 to 7 September 1989,
 
      Recalling also the proposals by the leaders of the Six-Nation Initiative
 to promote an end to nuclear testing,
 
      Convinced that the most effective way to achieve the discontinuance of
 all nuclear tests by all States in all environments for all time is through
 the conclusion, at an early date, of a verifiable, comprehensive
 nuclear-test-ban treaty that will attract the adherence of all States,
 
      Reaffirming the particular responsibilities of the Conference on
 Disarmament in the negotiation of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty,
 
      Taking note of the work being undertaken within the Conference on
 Disarmament by the Ad Hoc Group of Scientific Experts to Consider
 International Co-operative Measures to Detect and Identify Seismic Events in
 preparation for the next phase of the technical test, to take place in 1990,
 concerning the global exchange and analysis of seismic data,
 
      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 intensify its consideration of
 item 1 of its agenda, entitled "Nuclear test ban", and initiate substantive
 work on all aspects of a nuclear-test-ban treaty at the beginning of its 1990
 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 promptly to appropriate verifiable
 and militarily significant 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)  To take into account, in this context, the progress achieved by the
 Ad Hoc Group of Scientific Experts to Consider International Co-operative
 Measures to Detect and Identify Seismic Events, including work on the routine
 exchange and use of wave-form data, and other relevant initiatives or
 experiments by individual States and groups of States;
 
      (c)  To encourage the widest possible participation by States in the
 technical test that will take place in 1990 concerning the global exchange and
 analysis of seismic data;
 
      (d)  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-fifth session on progress made;
 
      5.   Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-fifth
 session the item entitled "Urgent need for a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban
 treaty".