Research Guides United Nations Office at Geneva Library & Archives

Disarmament: Global Issues

Transparency and Confidence-building

In order to prevent conflict and build trust, UNODA was mandated by the General Assembly to elaborate the following set of Confidence Building measures (CBMs) and transparency instruments:

Each member state  submits  a standardized reporting form on the previous year’s actual military expenditure, with the goal to decrease military spending.

Established in 1991, it supports transparency by listing imports and exports of conventional weapons, as declared by UN member state each calendar year.

Listing established and trusted military measures.

Regional instruments - Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (CSBM)

Statement issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) following the Conference on Confidence-and Security-Building Measures held in February 1998, in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Agreement between the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Russian Federation signed on 27 May 1997 in Paris.

Agreement between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia concluded on 26 January 1996, as directed by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Statement issued following the Organization of American States (OAS) Vice-Ministerial Conference held in Santiago, Chile, in 1995.

Agreements between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia concluded on 21 November 1995, bringing the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina to an end.

Agreement signed by 27 parties at Helsinki on 24 March 1992 and entered into force on 1 January 2002. Under the Treaty, parties are entitled to conduct aerial inspections of each other’s national territory.

Multilateral treaty between the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and of the Warsaw Pact, reducing the level of conventional military forces deployable by the States parties within the Treaty-covered area.

Agreement adopted in 1986 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which strengthened and expanded the confidence- and security-building provisions laid out in the Helsinki Final Act.

Document adopted in 1975 as a result of negotiations between the Soviet Union and Western countries at the Conference on Security and Cooperation (CSCE).

• Vienna Documents 

Set of four successive confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs) agreements concluded respectively in 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1999.

The aforementioned list of regional confidence and security-building measures is non-exhaustive.

Disarmament Research Guides