This commission was put under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Security Council and its mandate included: preparing proposals for a treaty for the regulation, limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments, including the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.

[4] This commissions includes all members states of the United Nations and meets yearly in New York for approximately three weeks.

[5] It is a deliberative body, whose mandate is considering and making recommendations on various issues in the field of disarmament.

[3] Due to the fact that disarmament is a substantial topic, the UNDC has traditionally focused on a limited number of agenda items at each session, typically three or four.

In 1998, this tendency was made official by the General assembly, who through decision 52/492, limited the work of the UNDC to "two agenda items per year from the whole range of disarmament issues, including one on nuclear disarmament."