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Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly1

[Paris, November 19, 1948.]

192(III)

Prohibition of the Atomic Weapon and Reduction by One-Third of the Armaments and Armed Forces of the Permanent Members of the Security Council

The General Assembly,

Desiring to establish relations of confident collaboration between the States within the framework of the Charter and to make possible a general reduction of armaments in order that humanity may in [Page 504] future be spared the horrors of war and that the peoples may not be overwhelmed by the continually increasing burden of military expenditure,

Considering that no agreement is attainable on any proposal for the reduction of conventional armaments and armed forces so long as each State lacks exact and authenticated information concerning the conventional armaments and armed forces of other States, so long as no convention has been concluded regarding the types of military forces to which such reduction would apply, and so long as no organ of control has been established,

Considering that the aim of the reduction of conventional armaments and armed forces can only be attained in an atmosphere of real and lasting improvement in international relations, which implies in particular the application of control of atomic energy involving the prohibition of the atomic weapon,

But noting on the other hand that this renewal of confidence would be greatly encouraged if States were placed in possession of precise and verified data as to the level of their respective conventional armaments and armed forces,

Recommends the Security Council to pursue the study of the regulation and reduction of conventional armaments and armed forces through the agency of the Commission for Conventional Armaments in order to obtain concrete results as soon as possible;

Trusts that the Commission for Conventional Armaments, in carrying out its plan of work, will devote its first attention to formulating proposals for the receipt, checking and publication, by an international organ of control within the framework of the Security Council, of full information to be supplied by Member States with regard to their effectives and their conventional armaments;

Invites the Security Council to report to the Assembly no later than its next regular session on the effect given to the present recommendation, with a view to enabling it to continue its activity with regard to the regulation of armaments in accordance with the purposes and principles defined by the Charter;

Invites all nations in the Commission for Conventional Armaments to co-operate to the Utmost of their power in the attainment of the above-mentioned objectives.

Hundred and sixty-third plenary meeting, 19 November 1948.

  1. The General Assembly considered the report of the First Committee (A/722) at its 161st, 162nd, and 163rd Plenary Meetings November 18 and 19. At the 163rd Meeting, the General Assembly approved the resolution recommended by the First Committee by a vote of 43–6–1, the Communist bloc opposing and Yemen abstaining.

    At the same meeting, the General Assembly voted down (6–39–6) a Soviet proposal, A/723, similar to the one rejected by the First Committee; for text, see GA (III/1), Annexes, p. 372, or Documents on Disarmament 1945–1959, vol. i, pp. 187–188. Polish resolution A/732, identical with that defeated by the First Committee, was likewise rejected (6–32–5); for text, see GA (III/1), Annexes, pp. 398–399. For the pertinent part of the record of the 163rd Plenary Meeting, see GA (III/1), Plenary, pp. 545–568.

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