First Committee briefing book 2020

Published ahead of the 2020 UN General Assembly First Committee, this briefing book highlights a number of critical disarmament topics and suggests how governments can achieve progress on them.

The General Assembly's work on disarmament is conducted through its First Committee. This briefing book provides a quick overview of the state of play on some of the most pressing issues that will be addressed at this year’s First Committee session. It also outlines recommendations for governments from some of the key civil society groups working on these topics. The civil society organisations, coalitions, and campaigns participating most actively at the First Committee have argued consistently that we can and must replace watered-down outcomes with real results that advance human security and social and economic justice.

At the time of publication, it is not clear in what format the 2020 First Committee session will be convened. It is also not clear what the status of resolutions or procedures for their negotiation will include, nor what kind of statements delegations will be able to provide. The analysis and recommendations included in this publication anticipate that the First Committee will convene in some fashion; however, even if it does not, the suggestions made herein should be taken forward by states in other feasible ways.

Edited by Ray Acheson and Allison Pytlak • Published September 2020 by Reaching Critical Will, a programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Download the briefing book in PDF

• Introduction, Reaching Critical Will (www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
• An open letter on COVID-19 and Humanitarian Disarmament (www.humanitariandisarmament.org)
• Nuclear weapons, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (www.icanw.org)
• Biological weapons, Kings College London (www.kcl.ac.uk)
• Chemical weapons, Reaching Critical Will (www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
• Armed drones, PAX (www.paxforpeace.nl)
• Fully autonomous weapons, Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (www.stopkillerrobots.org)
• Explosive weapons in populated areas, International Network on Explosive Weapons (www.inew.org)
• Landmines, International Campaign to Ban Landmines (www.icbl.org)
• Cluster munitions, Cluster Munition Coalition (www.stopclustermunitions.org)
• Depleted uranium weapons, International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (www.icbuw.eu)
• Incendiary weapons [also available in French and Spanish], Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org)
• Small arms and light weapons, International Action Network on Small Arms (www.iansa.org)
• International arms trade, Control Arms (www.controlarms.org)
• Outer space, Project Ploughshares (www.ploughshares.ca)
• Cyber, Reaching Critical Will (www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
• Gender and disarmament, Reaching Critical Will (www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
• Disarmament and development, Reaching Critical Will (www.reachingcriticalwill.org)
• Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts, Conflict and Environment Observatory (www.ceobs.org) and PAX (www.paxforpeace.nl)
• Disarmament education, International Disarmament Institute, Pace University (www.pace.edu/dyson/centers/international-disarmament-institute)

We are delighted to offer the online version of this publication for free, but please consider making a donation to Reaching Critical Will to help us cover the costs of producing this book and the other materials and information services that Reaching Critical Will provides.