United Nations Security Council Resolution 18

by the United Nations

Adopted by the Security Council at its 105th meeting, by 10 votes to none, with 1 abstention (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), on 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 strengthening international peace and security and that the implementation of the resolution of the General Assembly 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 by the Atomic Energy Commission [1] and to take suitable decisions in order to facilitate its work;

3. To set up a commission consisting of representatives of the members of the Security Council with instructions to prepare and submit to the Security Council, within the space of not more that 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 formulate in order to ensure the implementation of the above-mentioned resolutions of the General Assembly of 14 December 1946, 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 excluded 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 [2] in pursuance of Article 43 of the Charter and, as a first step, to submit to the Security Council, not later than 30 April 1947, its recommendations with regard to the basic principles which should govern the organization of the United Nations armed force.

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[1] Official Records of the Atomic Energy Commission, First Year, Special Supplement.

[2] Decision taken by the Council at its 23rd meeting. See Resolutions and Decisions of the Security Council, 1946, p. 13