DYB2011-Part-II-web

United Nations Disarmament Yearbook 2011: Part II
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negotiations. In addition, the Chilean presidency made an effort to commence
negotiations through the exploration of innovative approaches.
The high-level segment of the 2011 session, held under the presidency of
Pedro Oyarce (Chile), attracted a record number of 19 dignitaries, including
the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the Russian Foreign
Minister, Sergei Lavrov, which helped to enhance the Conference’s political
profile.
On 19 April, the CD held an unprecedented formal plenary meeting
during the intersessional period to bid farewell to the outgoing Secretary-
General of the Conference, Sergei Ordzhonikidze. The new Secretary-General
of the CD and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, Kassym-
Jomart Tokayev, assumed his functions on 19 May.
After lengthy procedural discussions, 7 the substantive deliberations on
the agenda items continued under the Chinese presidency, albeit in an informal
setting.
As it became clear during the second part of the 2011 session that there
were no prospects for the internal reform of the Conference, a large group of
members began to focus attention on the follow-up to the High-level Meeting
of September 2010.
Subsequently, at the request of 49 Member States, the General Assembly
convened a plenary meeting on 27 July under agenda item 162, entitled
“Follow-up to the high-level meeting held on 24 September 2010: revitalizing
the work of the Conference on Disarmament and taking forward multilateral
disarmament negotiations”.
The Colombian presidency organized informal meetings to discuss the
strengthening of the Conference and its future. To facilitate the discussions,
Arango Olmos (Colombia) invited the United Nations Institute for
Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) to make introductory presentations based
on two questionnaires, prepared by the Colombian presidency with the help of
UNIDIR, which were circulated in advance of each informal meeting.
In order to prepare for an exchange of views, which was held on
30 June, between the informal plenary of the CD and members of the
Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, the Colombian
presidency also conducted a debate on the causes of the lack of productivity
and the scope for internal reform.
Subsequent presidencies of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
and Cuba8 also did not see any progress in bridging the existing political
7 From 21 March to 1 April and 16 to 29 May 2011.
8 An agreement was reached at the 1227th plenary meeting of the Conference on
Disarmament that Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would switch the
order in which they served as President.