The question of disarmament has been discussed at the international level ever since the end of the First World War. Between 1918 and the outbreak of the Second World War two attempts towards disarmament were the Geneva protocol of 1925, prohibiting the use in war of gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare and the Briand - Kellog Pact of 1928 which outlawed war (Keesing 1972).

With the coming of nuclear weapons and the terrible destruction which they could bring about, the whole issue of disarmament became considerably more important. The United Nations from its inception in 1946 acknowledged this in its Charter by laying respon

The likely consequences of nuclear war make other threats to the environment pale into insignificance. Nuclear weapons represent a qualitative new step in the development of warfare. One thermonuclear bomb can have an explosive power greater than that of all the explosives used in wars since the invention of gunpowder. Besides the destructive effects radiation extends the lethal effects over both time and space. Scientists have called attention to the prospect of nuclear winter, which has been explored by some three-hundred scientists from the United States, Soviet Union and more than thirty other countries working on a collaborative basis (The World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). The consequences of nuclear war needs to be recognized universally and all States become involved in efforts to prevent the use and continued construction of nuclear weapons. The Superpowers of the world need to set aside differences and suspicions and continue talks with other parties to hold conferences to achieve total nuclear disarmament. It is in all of our best interests.

The agenda of the session, called for a general debate, followed by a review and appraisal of the present international situation, the adoption of a declaration on disarmament and a coarse of action, as well as a review of the role of the United Nations. There were those who predicted that the session would make no contribution to disarmament and also those who feared the conference would be counter productive. The result of the session was the drafting and adoption by consensus of a 10000 word final document, which was criticized for being watered down (Byers and Ing 1982). The implementation of the final document was a failure setting up UNSSOD II.

sibility for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments on the Security Counsel (Pauling 1958).

On August 5 1963 the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a partial test-ban treaty, which Following the amassing of technical data showing that detection of nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was possible without on-site inspection by a team of international observers. But under ground tests were not part of the treaty, which satisfied the Soviet Union, United States and the British

On September 5 after the Soviet Union carried out three nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, the United States resumed testing underground with no fall-out. Except in the Communist countries the Soviet Unions tests aroused worldwide concern, particularly in view of radioactive fall-out. January 1 1963 became a target date for a thirty-seven-nation resolution, which condemned all nuclear tests and urged the United States, Soviet Union and the British Governments to settle the remaining differences between them in order to achieve an agreement on the cessation of nuclear testing. It was also proposed that the three governments should take as their basis an eight- nation joint memorandum presented in April 1962 at the Geneva Conference. It included an eighteen-nation Disarmament Committee, which constituted an attempt to find a middle ground between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union positions at Geneva. Finally the resolution recommended that if the parties concerned did not reach an agreement on th

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