Produced by the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Updated July 2008
Resolution 1540 recognizes "the need to enhance coordination of efforts on
national, sub-regional, regional and international levels in order to
strengthen a global response to this... threat to international security."
The resolution requires all states to:
- "Adopt and enforce appropriate effective laws which prohibit any
non-State actor to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer
or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery, in
particular for terrorist purposes" (paragraph 2);
- "Take and enforce effective measures to establish domestic controls
to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and
their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over
related materials." To enact controls that include: (a) measures to
account for and secure such items; (b) effective physical protection measures;
(c) effective border controls and law enforcement efforts; and (d) effective
national export and trans-shipment controls over such items (paragraph
3).
The resolution further calls upon states to promote
dialogue and cooperation on nonproliferation (paragraph 9) and to take
cooperative action to prevent illegal trafficking (paragraph 10).
Another provision of Resolution 1540 establishes a Committee of the
Security Council. The Committee is comprised of representatives from each
member of the Security Council along with any additional outside experts tasked
by the United Nations to aid the Committee in its work. The mandate for the
Committee originally was set to expire on
April 28, 2006, but was extended twice until April 2011. The Committee's main objective is to collect comprehensive
reports from states parties; the first report was due six months from the
adoption of the resolution on October 28, 2004. By the deadline, 54 countries
had submitted their required reports.
Within the report, a member country
provides details on the steps that have been taken or the intended steps towards
the implementation of this resolution. For example, France
submitted a 25-page report detailing the nonproliferation efforts for
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and ballistic missiles. It also
provided information on France's membership in export control regimes or
other multilateral forums. Furthermore, the comprehensive report outlined
inter-ministerial coordination and other measures taken by France to implement
Resolution 1540. The United States submitted a
report that provides a survey of the range of U.S. laws, programs, and
initiatives to address proliferation. The report, a multi-agency effort,
provides detailed information on U.S. efforts to implement the resolution. It
also includes U.S. assistance to other states, support for the existing
nonproliferation treaties, and efforts to prevent WMD trafficking. In contrast,
countries such as Burkina
Faso submitted a 2-page report indicating that the country is neither an
exporter nor producer of such weapons, and with little information to provide,
it simply stated its support for the resolution. The country reports serve as an
important tool in understanding the scope of the proliferation challenge and how
it can best be addressed. Furthermore, the Committee's purpose in
conducting the reviews of these reports is to identify where governments have
overlooked proliferation loopholes in their national statues, border controls,
and export control systems.
The Committee analyzed the
country reports and prepared a report to the Security Council in April 2006 on member states' progress towards enacting laws
and procedures to enforce them. At that time, 129 states had submitted their first national report, but 62 states had not. The report contained detailed recommendations to help the Security Council monitor the implementation of the resolution and to allow states to fulfill its requirements. As part of the implementation effort, the Committee developed a legislative database containing information on national legislation adopted by states to comply with Resolution 1540.
An April 25, 2008
UN Security Council Resolution extended the Committee's mandate until April
2011, and called on states to help the committee implement the resolution's requirements. As of April 2008, 40 states, primarily in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific still had not submitted their initial reports.
