The Assembly's message to the nuclear powers: urgent appeals to end the arms race.

• Position: United Nations 1983 General Assembly

Among other actions, the Assembly:

Called again for a comprehensive nuclear test ban (resolutions 38/62, 63, 72) and a nuclear-weapons freeze (38/73 B, 73 E, 76);

Condemned nuclear war as "the most monstrous crime against peoples" and called on all States to halt the nuclear-arms race (38/75);

Asked the Soviet Union and the United States to continue their bilateral arms negotiations in Geneva in line with the "universal desire for progress towards disarmament" (38/183 P) and to consider combining into a single forum the two series of negotiations on nuclear-arms reduction and broadening their escope to include tactical nuclear weapons (38/183 N);

Requested reports from nuclear-weapon States on steps taken towards preventing nuclear war (38/183 M) and on any negotiations taking place outside the United Nations framework (183 H);

asked for negotiations on a treaty on non-use of nuclear weapons 38/73 G) and unilateral declartions by nuclear-weapon States regarding on obligation not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, such as were made by China and the USSR (38/183 B); and

Asked major naval Powers to refrain from enlarging their naval activities in areas of conflict or tension (38/188 F) and requested a comprehensive study on the naval arms race (188 G).

Also, in its resolution 38/73 E, the Assembly stated its firm conviction that the USSR and the United States were "now equivalent in nuclear military power" and that an Overall rough parity" existed between them.

Concern was expressed at the diversion of resources to the expanding arms race by rich and poor countries alike and the spread of knowledge and techniques for producing nuclear weapons to many nations. (For summaries of all disarmament resolutions, see General Assembly Resolutions Roundup, p. 24.)

Appeals for restraint and a new approach came not only from individual nations but from Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and Assembly President Jorge Illueca.

The Secretary-General, at his post-Assembly press conference on 20 December, asked who had given the nuclear Powers the right to decide the fate of the rest of the world. "The next war, if it is nuclear war, would destroy not only the countries which are directly concerned in the conflict but even countries as far away" as Peru, his own country. Even countries which were not party to the conflict would be the victims of an irresponsible decision by one, two, three or four leaders.

"They have to get the message that nobody has given them the right to...