Excerpt from the 52nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference's Resolutions on Creation of Denuclearized and Limited Armaments Zones

[EXCERPT FROM CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS]

b) The Creation of Denuclearized and Limited Armaments Zones as a First Step Towards General and Complete Disarmament

The 52^nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference,

Considering it necessary, simultaneously, simultaneously with the drafting of a treaty on general and complete disarmament, to take rapid and adequate measures to decrease tension in relations between States and to facilitate the achievement of humanity’s principal goal, namely, peace in the world through general and complete disarmament,

Considering also that among these measures a treaty to ban nuclear tests, and agreements to set up denuclearized zones, where required by the international situation, with the consent of the States concerned, could play a particularly important role,

Taking into account that a number of States have submitted plans for the creation of atom-free zones in different parts of the world – in Central Europe, the Balkans, the Mediterranean Basin, Northern Europe, the Pacific, the Near East, Latin America and other parts of the world;

That the idea of such zones has been favorably received by various States, as evidenced by the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1961 on the denuclearization of Africa, and by the support accorded by the XVIIth Session of the UN General Assembly to the plan for an atom-free zone Latin America;

That the idea of denuclearization has already been given concrete expression by the conclusion, in 1959, of a convention on Antarctica;

Recalling that, in the resolutions adopted by the Warsaw and Brasilia Conferences, the Inter-Parliamentary Union supported the creation of atom-free zones as being a further guarantee of collective security,

Noting that wide support for the idea of denuclearized zones leads to conditions favorable for formulating the general principles governing their creation,

Believes that the efforts to create adequately verified denuclearized zones and limited armaments zones in different parts of the world, provided they are arrived at freely by all the parties concerned in the region and do not alter the balance of military forces, would serve the cause of peace and represent a step towards the achievement of general and complete disarmament,

Welcomes the signature of the Moscow Test-Ban Treaty;

Urges those concerned to redouble their efforts in the Eighteen Nation-Disarmament Conference and elsewhere in order to reach early agreement on further measures to reduce tension and improve international confidence;

Calls for the achievement of the “principal aim” proclaimed in the Preamble of the Moscow Test-Ban Treaty, namely “the speediest possible achievement of an agreement on general and complete disarmament under strict international control, in accordance with the objectives of the United Nations, which would put an end to the armaments race and eliminate the incentive to the production and testing of all kinds of weapons, including nuclear weapons.”