PRESS RELEASE
17 April 1995
Non-Proliferation
Conference Opens:
Delegates Can't Decide How to Vote on
Treaty's Future
The future of global efforts to stop
nuclear proliferation will be decided at a Conference which opens
today, April 17th, in New York. The
Treaty must be renewed at the
Conference but the voting procedure remained undecided the night
before the conference opens. Four preparatory meetings over eighteen
months and a special "intersessional" last Friday and
Saturday have not resolved the voting procedure.
The two remaining issues are whether
states will vote by open or secret ballot and, if there is no
majority for one option on the first round of voting, whether and
when options might be eliminated in order to build a majority.
Some countries favour a secret ballot
so they can record a vote without pressure. States such as the U.S.,
the U.K. and France are using aid and other issues to garner support
for their preferred option of indefinite and unconditional extension
of the Treaty.
The voting issue may be resolved
today, Monday, although officials from states with a variety of
views on the problem considered this unlikely. The voting procedure
may remain unsettled until immediately before the vote on extension
is taken, likely in early May. In the event of deadlock the voting
procedure can be settled by a majority decision of the countries
attending the Conference.
"That delegates can't even
decide how to vote does not bode well for building consensus against
nuclear weapons at the Conference." said Stephen Young, Senior
Analyst at the British American Security Information Council.
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