The General Assembly,
Recalling that a comprehensive nuclear-test ban is one of the priority objectives of the international community in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation,
Convinced that the most effective way to achieve an end to nuclear testing is through the conclusion of a multilaterally and effectively verifiable comprehensive test-ban treaty that will attract the adherence of all States and will contribute to the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects, to the process of nuclear disarmament and therefore to the enhancement of international peace and security,
Convinced also that the exercise of utmost restraint in respect of nuclear testing would be consistent with the objective of an international negotiation of a comprehensive test ban,
Noting the aspirations expressed by the parties to the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water to seek to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time, which are recalled in the preamble to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,
Welcoming the willingness of all nuclear-weapon States as well as the rest of the international community to pursue the multilateral negotiation of a comprehensive test-ban treaty,
Noting with satisfaction the initiation in 1993 by the Conference on Disarmament of work under item 1 of its agenda, entitled "Nuclear Test Ban" and the programme of substantive work subsequently undertaken within its Ad Hoc Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban,
Noting also the ongoing activity of the Ad Hoc Group of Scientific Experts to Consider International Cooperative Measures to Detect and Identify Seismic Events,
1. Welcomes the decision taken by the Conference on Disarmament on 10 August 1993 to give its Ad Hoc Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban a mandate to negotiate a universal and internationally and effectively verifiable comprehensive test-ban treaty, and fully endorses the contents of that decision;
2. Calls upon participants in the Conference on Disarmament to approach the inter-sessional consultations mandated by that decision in a positive and constructive light;
3. Urges the Conference on Disarmament at the commencement of its 1994 session to re-establish, with an appropriate negotiating mandate, the Ad Hoc Committee on its agenda item entitled "Nuclear test ban";
4. Calls upon all States to support the multilateral negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament for a comprehensive test-ban treaty;
5. Also urges the Conference on Disarmament to proceed intensively, as a priority task, in its negotiation of such a universal and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure the provision to the Conference on Disarmament of additional administrative, substantive and conference support services for these negotiations;
7. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-ninth session an item entitled "Comprehensive test-ban treaty".
81st plenary meeting
16 December 1993
