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November 2025 E-News

There is a direct correlation between the decades of rising military spending, nuclear arms racing, and development of new technologies of violence on the one hand, and the levels of war, genocide, and armed conflict we are experiencing today on the other. Relentless investments in militarism have been made by the world’s biggest economies at the expense of human security and wellbeing, at the expense of mitigating climate change and protecting our ecosystems, at the expense of diplomacy and multilateral cooperation. We reap what we sow: the horrors around the world from multiple genocides, occupations, and invasions are aided and abetted by the major weapon producers and the war and reconstruction profiteers.

And still, it’s apparently not enough—so, the United States is trying to manufacture consent for war and occupation throughout Latin America. It has already been conducting extrajudicial killings that some of even its staunchest allies have recognised as unlawful, and has made threats to once again assert its dominance over what it claims as its “neighbourhood”. Organised resistance—by states and civil society alike—is essential to stand up to, disrupt, and dismantle the militarism that underpins the reckless and violent path of the world's most heavily militarised states. Disarmament and demilitarisation are the only paths to peace, and the world has a responsibility and a right to achieve both. Our latest E-News offers some thoughts on recent developments and highlights meaningful action for change. Solidarity to all who struggle for a better world! (Photo credit: Ego Myznik, Unsplash)

In this edition:

Upcoming Disarmament Meetings

  • The Second International Conference of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas will be held in San José, Costa Rica on 19–20 November 2025. The International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW) will hold a Protection Forum together with SEHLAC and FUNPADEM on 18 November 2025. 
  • The first meeting of the Qualified Group of Experts to prepare a study on the question of nuclear weapon free zones will meet from 1–5 December 2025. 

Recently Concluded Disarmament Meetings 

UN General Assembly high-level debate and events 

This year’s high-level debate at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) reflected a world on the cusp of profound geopolitical transformation. While there is still a long way to go to mounting an effective collective resistance at the state level, it is significant that most governments categorially denounced genocide, war profiteering, and the rule of force being imposed over the rule of law. During the general debate, RCW tracked all references to disarmament, weapons, and war and wrote a report on key themes and important reflections. RCW also monitored and reported on the high-level meetings for the International Day on the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. 

UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security 

The UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security met from 8 October to 7 November. The discussions and resolutions showed that multilateralism and peace are under extreme threat from the most militarised states in the world, which are ramping up arms races and engaging in open conflict and genocide to the detriment of humanity, the environment, and international security. But most governments still maintain that international law is a shield, and used the First Committee to demand disarmament, demilitarisation, diplomacy, and dialogue. 

During the First Committee, RCW coordinated and published the weekly First Committee Monitor, with key insights from experts across issues, and archived statements, documents, and more. RCW’s Director Ray Acheson also spoke at two side events, on the legal and humanitarian implications of bias in the military use of artificial intelligence (AI) and on recent initiatives to bring the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda into disarmament. RCW also advocated for the adoption of resolutions aiming to keep AI out of nuclear command and control systems, to achieve nuclear abolition, and to uphold international law on landmines and cluster munitions. The RCW team also urged states to stop arming Israel and end the genocide of Palestinians, and to stand up skyrocketing military spending and new belligerent military actions like the US government’s extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean. For more, see our weekly Monitors and our First Committee Briefing Book. 

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Meeting of High Contracting Parties 

On 12 November 2025, delegations met in Geneva for the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). The meeting lasted a total of 31 minutes. Delegations skipped the general debate and jumped to the consideration and adoption of the draft final report. States parties decided to hold the next sessions of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) from 2–6 March 2026 and from 31 August–4 September 2026. The meeting also decided that the Seventh Review Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention will be held from 16-20 November 2026.  

During the most recent GGE session, held last September, a joint statement delivered by Brazil on behalf of 42 states affirmed that they are ready to move ahead towards negotiations of an instrument on lethal autonomous weapon systems on the basis of the rolling text. Hopefully, delegations will heed the call from these 42 states and conclude the work of the GGE with a strong recommendation towards this goal. Find out more about the Meeting of High Contracting Parties with our full report. 

Top Stories

Stop Arming Israel 

On 20 October 2025, Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, released her latest report. She posits that the ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential third states that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. “Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians,” she argues, “this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.” This “has exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest. The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met and justice is upheld.” 

In response to Albanese’s presentation of this report in the UN General Assembly Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Issues, the Israeli delegation accused Albanese of being a witch. Albanese responded by noting that it is “grotesque and frankly delusional that a genocidal state can’t respond to the substance of my findings” and instead resorts to calling her a witch. She said, “If I had the power to make spells, I would use it not for vengeance, I would use it to stop your crimes once and for all.” The implicit violence of this accusation cannot be overstated. Throughout history, the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights explains, “witchcraft related beliefs and practices have resulted in serious violations of human rights, including, beatings, banishment, cutting of body parts, and amputation of limbs, torture and murder.” Moreover, many women throughout history who have spoken truth to power have been accused of witchcraft and subjected to this violence. To have a representative of a state currently committing genocide make such hostile, gendered accusations, in the United Nations no less, is chilling and unacceptable. 

Meanwhile, Israel has continued its genocide despite the “ceasefire” with Hamas. Israel has killed hundreds of civilians in Gaza and is refusing to allow the agreed amount of humanitarian aid into the besieged strip. UNICEF says that Israel is blocking the medical supplies necessary to carry out its childhood vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip. Tents being used by displaced people in Gaza are collapsing in heavy rains. Meanwhile, Israel has also been attacking and arresting people in the West Bank and settlers have assaulted Palestinians, torched a mosque, and destroyed Palestinian olive groves. The genocide continues. 

Thus, the work to stop arming Israel must continue. Activists with the Palestinian Youth Movement and other organisations have launched a new campaign for a People’s Embargo for Palestine to coordinate pressure on governments, corporations, and institutions to stop arming Israel. The campaign notes, “Spain has enforced an arms embargo, Italian dockworkers took it into their own hands to block Israeli weapons shipments, Moroccans in Tangier and Casablanca mobilized mass protests against ships carrying Israeli military cargo, Colombia ended coal shipments to Israel, and Oakland launched a campaign against the use of public infrastructure for the transport of military cargo. We have significantly pressured Maersk since the launch of the #MaskOffMaersk campaign, resulting in the loss of two ports and the end of its trade with settlements-- the first time a logistics company drops settlements in history.” Thus, a people’s embargo for Palestine is “a concrete, enforceable and necessary step to end the flow of weapons and weapons components used in Israel’s genocide on Gaza and continued occupation of Palestine. To effectively organize for a comprehensive, two-way arms embargo, we must bring together supply-chain pressure, union actions, legal and political pressure.”  

Renouncing the possibility of renewed nuclear testing 

RCW rejects the possible resumption of nuclear weapon testing announced by the US president, who instructed the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) to resume nuclear testing on an “equal basis” with China and Russia. Neither China nor Russia are testing nuclear weapons. If he meant testing nuclear weapon delivery systems like missiles, then the US already regularly does that. And, in the US, it is the Department of Energy, not the Department of War, that is responsible for nuclear weapons. While it is thus unclear what the order is, it is very clear that any resumption of explosive nuclear testing would mean a return to an era of devastating humanitarian consequences and heighten risks of nuclear war even further. Russia has already said that it would take “reciprocal measures” if the US resumes nuclear testing. 

Nuclear testing has a disproportionate catastrophic impact on Indigenous populations globally. In the United States, the Western Shoshone, on whose lands the Nevada Nuclear Test Site is situated, is already known as the “most bombed nation on Earth” and must not be subjected to any further unlawful radioactive attacks, above or below ground. The US is a signatory of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). While it hasn't ratified the treaty, it is still legally bound to uphold its provisions, which means no explosive nuclear testing. Resuming nuclear testing would be reckless and dangerous for global and national regional security. Testing means using a nuclear weapon and must be opposed by all who want to prevent nuclear war and any further radioactive devastation. 

No to war in Latin America and the Caribbean 

The US government is trying to manufacture consent for war in Venezuela, and possibly also Colombia and Mexico and others in Latin America. In recent weeks, the US military has launched several attacks against boats in the Caribbean, killing dozens of Venezuelan, Colombian, and Trinidadian citizens in a series of extrajudicial killings. The United States is using the pretext of its “war on drugs” to justify these actions, and for sending B-52 bombers and an aircraft carrier to the region and threatening a ground invasion. The US Secretary of War last week announced “Operation Southern Spear” aimed at targeting “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere. However, most of the world understands that this is about regime change and control of Venezuelan oil. The US government is also escalating its threats against Colombia, which has been a leader in the Hague Group’s efforts to end Israel’s genocide. And it has said it will send ground troops and the CIA into Mexico to fight drug cartels. 

RCW opposes the mounting militarism, threats of invasion, unlawful military attacks, and extrajudicial killing in Latin America and the Caribbean. The “war on drugs,” like the “war on terror” and “war on communism” before it, is simply a pretext for US imperialism. As a joint statement of Latin American and Caribbean leaders has said, “We have lived this nightmare before. US military interventions of the 20th century brought dictatorships, disappearances, and decades of trauma to our nations. We know the terrible cost of allowing foreign powers to wage war on our continent. We cannot—we will not—allow history to repeat itself.” 

All states must object to US military intervention and extrajudicial killings in Latin America and the Caribbean, and work to prevent such attacks, including through arms embargoes and ending intelligence sharing. The US attacks have been facilitated by Canadian-made weapon systems; an investigation by Project Ploughshares found that at least two of the attacks relied on advanced electro-optical/infrared sensor systems built in Hamilton, Ontario, by L3Harris WESCAM. The Canadian government must stop the transfer of weapons, parts, and components to the US, as they are being used to violate international law. The United Kingdom has recognised this, stopping some of its intelligence sharing with the US because it does not want to be complicit in unlawful US military strikes. All US allies must pressure it to stop its unlawful attacks and threats and refrain from further military or CIA action in the region. 

Gender and Disarmament Database: Recommendation of the Month  

Our recommendation of the month is the factsheet on gender and the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. It aims to provide the mine action sector with insights into key trends on the gendered impact of mines and explosive remnants of war, informing inclusive and gender-sensitive responses. This information is vital ahead of the upcoming Meeting of States Parties to the MBT, particularly as some states are recklessly withdrawing from the Treaty. 

The Gender and Disarmament Database, created and maintained by Reaching Critical Will, features a wide range of resources such as reports, articles, books and book chapters, policy documents, podcasts, legislation, and UN documents. The database allows the exploration of relevant resources based on their references to distinctive gender aspects in disarmament, such as gender-based violence, gender norms, or gender diversity, and different related topics or types of weapon systems. It currently contains more than 800 resources. Suggestions of new additions can be sent to disarm[at]WILPF[dot]com.

Upcoming Events 

Conferences 

Sixth session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction 
17–21 November 2025 | New York, United States  

Second International Conference of the EWIPA Declaration 
19–20 November 2025 | San Jose, Costa Rica 

Twenty-Second Meeting of the States Parties (22MSP) to the Mine Ban Treaty 
1–5 December 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland 

First meeting of the Qualified Group of Experts to prepare a study on the question of nuclear weapon free zones 
1–5 December 2025 | New York, United States 

Working Group on Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention  
8–12 December 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland 

Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of States Parties  
15–17 December 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland 

Events  

Nuclear Injustice Exhibition 
15 November 2025–31 January 2026 | New York, USA 

Protection Forum 
18 November 2025 | San José, Costa Rica 

Holding the Memories: Communities Leading the Fight for Nuclear Archival Justice 
19 or 20 November 2025 (depending on time zone) | Online 

Featured News

  • Russia tests new nuclear-powered cruise missile and nuclear-capable torpedo. In October 2025, Russia tested its new nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik and its new nuclear-capable super torpedo Poseidon. The military claimed both tests were successful, raising concerns among some states during the First Committee. 
  • US Department of War seeks to buy weapons faster. The US Secretary of War announced that the Pentagon is changing how the US military buys weapons, “shifting the focus away from producing advanced and complex technology and toward products that can be made and delivered quickly.” He said the “objective is simple: transform the entire acquisition system to operate on a wartime footing, to rapidly accelerate the fielding of capabilities and focus on results.” 
  • Russia attacks Zaporizhzhia, damaging nuclear power substations. In early November, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions, killing seven people and damaging nuclear power substations. The drone attacks also hit an apartment building and other facilities in Dnipro, leaving thousands without water and power. 
  • The Israeli military conducted heavy airstrikes on southern Lebanon earlier this month. As Drop Site News reports, “Since the ceasefire went into effect a year ago, Israeli military attacks in Lebanon have killed over 270 people and wounded 850, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. No Israelis have been killed since the ceasefire.” Israel has also built walls inside Lebanon that cross an unofficial UN-created “border,” which UN peacekeepers have asked Israel to move. 
  • United States pushes UN Security Council to adopt resolution giving it occupying power over Gaza. The US mission to the UN circulated its draft resolution to the 15 Security Council members last week. According to a draft of the text seen by the AFP news agency, it would authorise a two-year mandate running until the end of 2027 for a transitional governance body in Gaza—known as the “Board of Peace”—that US President Trump would chair. It would also authorise member states to form a “temporary International Stabilization Force” that would work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups” in Gaza and secure humanitarian aid corridors. 
     
  • Genocide continues in Sudan with massacre at El-Fasher. At least 1500 people were killed in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their capture of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to a medical group and researchers. 

  • DRC and M23 sign framework deal for peace. Representatives from the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group have signed a deal in Qatar that mediators hope will lead to a comprehensive peace agreement. 
     
  • People of Ecuador reject amending the constitution to allow foreign military bases. In a vote of 61 per cent to 39 per cent, Ecuadoreans rejected the government’s proposal to allow a US military base. 

Recommended Resources

Ashley Gate and William D. Hartung, “Doomed, Not Domed?” TomDispatch, 16 November 2026 

Christopher Ketcham, “How to Monkeywrench a Genocide,” Drop Site News, 15 November 2025 

Ana Calderón & Constanza Carrasco, “Pushing back on militarism in Mexico,” ojalá, 14 November 2026 

William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America Into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home (New York: Bold Type Books, 11 November 2026) 

Ian Davis, Nordic Defence Cooperation Agreements with the United States Implications for the Arctic, nuclear weapons policy, sovereignty and the future of Greenland, NATO Watch, 11 November 2025 

Webinar: “#NoWar2025: Panel: Making the Case for Abolition,” World BEYOND War, 24 October 2025 

Marwa Fatafta, “AI for War: Big Tech Empowering Israel’s Crimes and Occupation,” Al-Shabaka, 26 October 2025 

Webinar: “The Human and Financial Costs of the Post-10/7 Wars, Two Years Later,” Watson School of International and Public Affairs, 24 October 2025 

Anna Stavrianakis, “Why the UK Government was Taken to Court Over Arms Sales to Israel,” The Political Quarterly, 16 October 2025 

Timothy Barnes, “Is Europe turning its back on arming Israel?” Action on Armed Violence, 16 October 2025 

"Two Years Since October 7: Gaza Genocide and Geopolitics,” Al-Shabaka, 7 October 2025 

William D. Hartung, "U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025,” Cots of War, 7 October 2025  

Neta C. Crawford, "The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025,” Costs of War, 7 October 2025 

David Vine, "Mass Displacement since October 7, 2023: Flight from War, Genocide, and Expulsion in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank,” Costs of War, 7 October 2025 

Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, “Torture weapons are being used on Europe’s streets to put down protests,” EUobserver, 2 October 2026 

Panel discussion: “Which Risks? What Threat? Nuclear Weapons 80 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” College of the Holy Cross, 23 September 2025