Renewing 1540 - 1673 (2006)

The S/RES/1673 deals mainly with the 1540 Committee renewal and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction inside the organization and its surrounding agencies. The preamble comes from the same basis as S/RES/1540, mainly on the terms of coming from stating that proliferation of any of the three weapons of mass destruction is a threat to international peace and security granting the basis for action under Chapter VII of Charter. It also goes on again reaffirming that the provisions and obligations from other multilateral treaties that deal with those weapons. There are two important innovations from S/RES/1540 to S/RES/1673. Firstly is that not all States have presented the report required by S/RES/1540 that was supposed to be sent within six months, this 2006 resolution calls for States to submit the report. Secondly, there a clause on the preamble that state that the task required by 1540 are a “long-term task that will require continuous efforts at national, regional and international levels,”. With this opening they endorse the work already developed by the Committee related to the national reports already submitted.

The operative clauses calls for the full implementation of the S/RES/1540 and calls upon the States that have not submitted a report within the time frame of six months to submit it without delay. The tone of the resolution seems to call for an extension of the mandate of the 1540 Committee until April 27th, 2008; calling also to intensify its efforts to promote full implementation of the resolution. There is one additional call for information on their implementation of the resolution from the all States that have submitted their initial reports. This is a additional task that is to be taken by the 1540 Committee that was not established during the S/RES/1540. There is also a call for a report from the Committee to the Security Council on the compliance with S/RES/1540 no latter that April 27th, 2008. There is a call to intensify the efforts on the four elements that compose the main task of the S/RES/1540 by encouraging the pursuit of dialogue between the Committee and the States to work towards the implementation and also to promote experience-sharing in the areas of the resolution.

The resolution renews the two-year mandate for another two years for an effort that was supposed to have lasted six months in the production of the national reports. The request of more information from all the States that submitted the initial report seems to be working towards the enlargement of the function of the committee. Finally, S/RES/1673 positions the Committee as a middle-man between the States that can offer and the ones that need assistance. In this regard, S/RES/1673 enlarges the functions of the 1540 Committee while acknowledging the short-comings of the work that has been developed under the committee. As usual, the decide to remain seized of the mater.