Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Kassym-Jomart Tokayev opens the Conference on Disarmament. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

“I urge you to seize this moment, when the world is focused intently on advancing disarmament goals,” Mr. Ban said in a message to the opening of the Conference on Disarmament, read out on his behalf by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG).

“I appeal to you to support the immediate commencement of negotiations in the Conference on agreed disarmament issues,” he added. “Prior agreement on their scope or final outcomes should not be a precondition for the start of negotiations, or an excuse to avoid them.

“The tide of disarmament is rising, yet the Conference on Disarmament is in danger of sinking.”

Established in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, the CD – as the Conference is known – primarily focuses on cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war, and prevention of an arms race in outer space, among other things.

It has been plagued in recent years by an inability to overcome differences among its members and start its substantive work towards advancing disarmament goals.

Mr. Ban reminded members that the CD and its predecessors have had some impressive accomplishments, including work on the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

“Many of these were achieved during the Cold War, proving that it is possible to create global legal norms even in times of great political disagreements,” he noted.

“Yet today, this distinguished body is no longer living up to expectations,” Mr. Ban said, adding that the last occasion on which the Conference fulfilled the negotiating role given to it by the General Assembly was in 1996, when the CTBT emerged from an intensive three-year process.

“The future of the Conference is in the hands of its member States. But I can not stand by and watch it decline into irrelevancy, as States consider other negotiating arenas,” said the Secretary-General.

“Let us restore the Conference to the central role it can and must play in strengthening the rule of law in the field of disarmament. It is our shared responsibility to make the Conference work, not only for us but for future generations.”

Nuclear test carried out on 18 April 1953 at the Nevada test site.

Out of a total listed number of 195 States, 182 have so far signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

For the treaty to enter into force ratification is required from the so-called Annex 2 States. Of these China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and the United States have yet to ratify it. The Indonesian parliament took the decision to ratify the treaty on 6 December 2011.

Guatemala’s Foreign Minister, Haroldo Rodas Melgar, handed over the instrument of his country’s ratification at a ceremony yesterday at UN Headquarters in New York.

Welcoming this move, Tibor Tóth, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), said Guatemala’s ratification is an important building block towards a world free of nuclear weapons.

“It underlines Guatemala’s commitment to outlaw nuclear testing and to enhance non-proliferation and disarmament worldwide,” he stated.

Latin America and the Caribbean was the first region in the world to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone with the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1967.

“Guatemala’s ratification of the CTBT is a boost for the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which will soon celebrate 10 years of being the world’s first nuclear-weapon-free zone to include all countries in the region,” noted Mr. Tóth. “This bodes well for the CTBT.”

Among the 33 States in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, 31 have now ratified the CTBT, with Cuba and Dominica being the only countries that have not yet signed or ratified.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged all remaining States to sign and ratify the CTBT, with the aim of bringing it into force by 2012.

“My message is clear: Do not wait for others to move first. Take the initiative. Lead. The time for waiting has passed,” he told a high-level conference last September on facilitating the treaty’s entry into force. “We must make the most of existing – and potentially short-lived – opportunities.”

In the meantime, Mr. Ban has urged all States to honour all existing moratoria on nuclear-weapon-test explosions, and to refrain from acting in a manner that undermines the purpose of the treaty.