A/RES/58/50 GA

United Nations A/RES/58/50 General Assembly Distr.: General 8 January 2004 Fifty-eighth session Agenda item 73 (c) 03 45591 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 8 December 2003 [on the report of the First Committee (A/58/462)] 58/50. Reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons The General Assembly, Recalling its resolutions 55/33 D of 20 November 2000 and 57/58 and 57/59 of 22 November 2002, Stressing the unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States, in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament, to which all States parties to the Treaty are committed under its article VI,1 Recognizing that disarmament and non-proliferation are essential for the maintenance of international peace and security, Reaffirming the necessity of strict compliance at all times and in all circumstances by all parties with their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons2 and the necessity of upholding their commitments in the decisions and final documents agreed at the 1995 and 2000 Review Conferences, Noting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, issued at The Hague on 8 July 1996,3 Reiterating the responsibility of the nuclear-weapon States for transparent, verifiable and irreversible reductions in nuclear weapons leading to nuclear disarmament, _______________ 1 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, vol. I (NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I and II)), part I, section entitled “Article VI and eighth to twelfth preambular paragraphs”, para. 15:6. 2 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 729, No. 10485. 3 A/51/218, annex; see also Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 226. A/RES/58/50 2 Stressing the commitment made in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference to the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons,4 Convinced that the further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons constitutes an integral part of the nuclear-arms reduction and disarmament process, Concerned about the threat posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons due to their portability and proximity to areas of conflict, and thus about the risk of proliferation and of use, Concerned also about emerging approaches to the broader role of nuclear weapons as part of security strategies, including the possible development of new types of low-yield non-strategic nuclear weapons, Taking into consideration the lack of transparency and of formal agreements with regard to non-strategic nuclear weapons, Emphasizing that further reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be accorded a higher priority, as an important step towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, and be carried out in a comprehensive manner, 1. Agrees that further reductions in and elimination of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be based on unilateral initiatives and included as an integral part of the nuclear-arms reduction and disarmament process; 2. Also agrees that reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons should be carried out in a transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner; 3. Further agrees on the importance of preserving, reaffirming and implementing the 1991 and 1992 presidential nuclear initiatives of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics/Russian Federation on non-strategic nuclear weapons; 4. Calls upon the Russian Federation and the United States of America to formalize their presidential nuclear initiatives into legal instruments and to initiate negotiations on further reductions of such weapons; 5. Stresses the importance of the enhancement of special security and physical protection measures for the transport and storage of non-strategic nuclear weapons, their components and related materials through, inter alia, the placing of such weapons in physically secure central storage sites, with a view to their removal and subsequent elimination by the nuclear-weapon States as a part of the nuclear disarmament process to which they are committed under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,2 and calls upon all nuclear-weapon States in possession of such weapons to take the necessary steps in this regard; 6. Calls for further confidence-building and transparency measures to reduce the threats posed by non-strategic nuclear weapons; 7. Also calls for concrete agreed measures to reduce further the operational status of non-strategic nuclear weapons systems so as to reduce the risk of use of non-strategic nuclear weapons; _______________ 4 See 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, vol. I (NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I and II)), part I, section entitled “Article VI and eighth to twelfth preambular paragraphs”, para. 15:9. A/RES/58/50 3 8. Stresses the need for an undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States that possess such weapons not to increase the number or types of weapons deployed and not to develop new types of these weapons or rationalizations for their use; 9. Calls for the prohibition of those types of non-strategic nuclear weapons that have already been removed from the arsenals of some nuclear-weapon States and the development of transparency mechanisms for the verification of the elimination of these weapons; 10. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixtieth session the item entitled “Reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons”. 71st plenary meeting 8 December 2003

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