Security Council resolution 18 (1947) [on regulation and reduction of armaments]
Symbol: S/RES/18(1947)
Date: 1947-02-13
Status: adopted
Subjects: UN. Military Staff Committee|UN. Atomic Energy Commission|UN. COMMISSION FOR CONVENTIONAL ARMAMENTS > ESTABLISHMENT.|ARMAMENTS|ARMED FORCES|CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS|ARMS LIMITATION|DISARMAMENT|ESTABLISHMENT
Votes in favour: 10
Votes against: 0
Abstentions: 1
Voting record:
country: AUSTRALIA
vote: yes
country: BELGIUM
vote: yes
country: BRAZIL
vote: yes
country: CHINA
vote: yes
country: COLOMBIA
vote: yes
country: FRANCE
vote: yes
country: POLAND
vote: yes
country: SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
vote: yes
country: USSR
vote: abstention
country: UNITED KINGDOM
vote: yes
country: UNITED STATES
vote: yes

18 (1947). Resolution of 13 February 1947
[S/268/Rev.1/Corr.1]

The Security Council,

Having accepted General Assembly resolution 41 (1)
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 (1) and
42 (1) 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 14 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 than three
months, the proposals (a) for the general regulation
and reduction of armaments and armed forces, and (6)
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 I (1) 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 15 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.

Adopted at the 105th meeting by 10 votes to none,
with 1 abstention (Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics).

14 Official Records of the Atomic Energy Commission, First
Year, Special Supplement.

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