United Nations Security Council Resolution 18 – Armaments: regulation and reduction

18 (1947). Resolution of 13 February 1947

The Security Council,

Having accepted General Assembly resolution 41 (I) of 14 December 1946, and recognizing that the general regulation and reduction of armaments and armed forces constitute a most important measure for streng-thening international peace and security and that the implementation of the resolution of the General Assemb!y on this subject is one of the most urgent and important tasks before the Security Council,

Resolves:

1. To work out the practical measures for giving effect to General Assembly resolutions 41 (I) and 42 (I) of 14 December 1946 concerning, on the one hand, the general regulation and reduction of armaments and armed forces and the establishment of international control to bring about the reduction of armaments and armed forces and, on the other hand, information concerning the armed forces of the United Nations;

2. To consider as soon as possible the report submitted hy the Atomic Energy Commission 14 and to take suitable decisions in order to facilitate its work;

3. To set up a commission consisting of represen-tatives of the members of the Security Council with instructions to prepare and submit to the Security Council, within the space of not more than three months, the proposals (a) for the general regulation and reduction of armaments and armed forces, and (b) for practical and effective safeguards in connexion with the general regulation and reduction of armaments, which the commission may be in a position to formu-late in order to ensure the implementation of the above-mentioned resolutions of the General Assembly of 14 December I 946, in so far as these resolutions relate to armaments within the new commission’s jurisdiction;

The commission shall submit a plan of work to the Council for approval;

Those matters which fall within the competence of the Atomic Energy Commission as determined by General Assembly resolutions 1 (I) of 24 January 1946 and 41 (I) of 14 December 1946 shall be exclu-ded from the jurisdiction of the commission hereby established;

The title of the commission shall be the Commission for Conventional Armaments;

The Commission shall make such proposals as it may deem advisable concerning the studies which the Military Staff Committee and possibly other organs of the United Nations might be asked to undertake;

4. To request the Military Staff Committee to submit to it, as soon as possible and as a matter of urgency, the recommendations for which it has been asked by the Security Council on 16 February 1946 15 in pur-suance of Article 43 of the Charter and, as a first step, to submit to the Security Council, not later than 30 April 194 7, its recommendations with regard to the basic principles which should govern the organi-zation of the United Nations armed force.

Adopted at the 105th meet-ing by 10 votes to none, with I abstention (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)