Published in advance of the 2022 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, this briefing book provides an overview of critical issues and offers recommendations to governments for the Review Conference and beyond.

The UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) will host its flagship Cyber Stability Conference in a hybrid format on 3 December 2021. Please visit this event page to learn more and register. 

Reaching Critical Will will monitor the following meetings of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 2021:

• CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems, 28 June–5 July (informal), 3–13 August, 24 September–1 October 2021, and 2–8 December 2021
• CCW Preparatory Committee, 6–8 September 2021
• CCW Sixth Review Conference, 13–17 December 2021 

Please note these dates are subject to COVID-19 developments.

To receive Reaching Critical Will's CCW Report with coverage of these meetings, please sign up here to our "conventional weapons / emerging technologies of violence" mailing list.

The meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapon systems is convened through the Conference on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and is chaired by Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve of Belgium. The GGE is scheduled to meet for 20 days in 2021:

• 28 June–5 July 2021 (an informal exchange convened online)
• 3 August–13 August 2021 (in-person in Geneva)
• 24 September–1 October 2021 (in-person in Geneva)
• 2–8 December 2021 (in-person in Geneva)

Reaching Critical Will resources

• CCW Report - subscribe to the "conventional weapons / emerging technologies of violence" mailing list to receive the report during meetings
• Feminist perspectives on autonomous weapon systems
• A WILPF Guide to Killer Robots

CCW resources

• Documents
• Statements

Other resources

• Campaign to Stop Killer Robots
• Official UN website
• Text of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons

The seventh Biennial Meeting of States (BMS7) on the UN Programme of Action (UNPoA) to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects is scheduled to take place 26–30 July 2021 in a hybrid format with physical meetings occurring at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Chair for the Conference is Ambassador Martin Kimani of Kenya.

Information about civil society participation is available in this aide-memoire. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, civil society participation at BMS7 is taking place virtually/online, taking into account the safety and health guidelines implemented at the United Nations Headquarters. There is no expectation of travel to UNHQ in New York. All side events will take place fully virtually. The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) serves as the official coordinator of civil society participation in BMS7 this year. Please contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions related to the BMS7, including accreditation, registration, side events, and NGO statements to the meeting.

BMS7 resources

• Documents
• Statements
• Small Arms Monitor
• Side events

WILPF side events

On 29 July, 9:00 EST, WILPF, together with the Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control (GENSAC), is co-hosting the online event “Advancing gender-responsive small arms control through advocacy and research: opportunities and challenges.” The event will feature speakers from WILPF Kenya and WILPF’s partner Asuda, who will speak to some of the practical challenges of doing work in this area, including challenges related to gender-disaggregated data collection.

WILPF will also speak at the online event "Comparing global arms control instrument review processes: Lessons and challenges," on 28 July, 13:15 - 14:45 EST.

Relevant websites

• International Action Network on Small Arms 
• UN Office for Disarmament Affairs page for BMS7

Reaching Critical Will resources

• How to mitigate gender-based violence against persistent security challenges in Burkina Faso? (French) (August 2019)
  
• Gender and armed violence: a look at the situation in Cameroon (August 2019)
• The link between the proliferation of SALW and gender-based violence in the DRC (French) (August 2019)
• The 2018 Small Arms Monitor
• Preventing gender-based violence through arms control (April 2016)
• Women, weapons, and war: a gendered critique of multilateral instruments (October 2015)
• Small arms, big picture (September 2014)
• An assessment of the PoA (June 2014)

Background information

• 2018 Review Conference
• 2018 Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference
• 2016 Biennial Meeting of States (BMS6)
• 2015 Meeting of Government Experts (MGE2)
• 2014 Biennial Meeting of States (BMS5)
• 2012 Review Conference
• 2012 Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference
• 2011 Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE1)
• 2010 Biennial Meeting of States (BMS4)
• 2008 Biennial Meeting of States (BMS3)
• UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons
• International Tracing Instrument

Other resources

• 2020 Report of the UN Secretary General on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects and assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons and collecting them (A/75/78)
• 2019 Report of the UN Secretary General on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects and assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons and collecting them (A/74/187)
• UN Office for Disarmament Affairs
• International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)

Due to public health concerns of COVID-19, the 2020 NPT Review Conference will be postponed to a later date until further notice. All scheduled side events are cancelled.

This events calendar is being updated to list related virtual events. If you would like to add yours, please send an email to disarm[at]wilpf.org with the following information: Title of the event; (co-) organisers; date, time and time zone; information on how to register/attend the event.

ONLINE EVENTS

BRIEFINGS FROM GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS | CIVIL SOCIETY EVENTS

BRIEFING FROM GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ONLY

Wednesday, 22 April 2020

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Thursday, 30 April 2020

Tuesday, 05 May 2020

Thursday, 07 May 2020

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Thursday, 28 May 2020

CIVIL SOCIETY EVENTS

Tuesday, 21 April 2020

Saturday, 25 April 2020

Monday 27 April 2020

Tuesday 28 April 2020 

Thursday 30 April 2020 

Saturday, 02 May 2020

Thursday, 14 May 2020

Sunday, 17 May 2020

Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Friday, 22 May 2020

Information for civil society representatives interested in attending the 2020 NPT Review Conference in New York, USA is now available. The Conference takes place from 27 April-22 May. 

Please read this information note from the UN containing complete details on accreditation and registration for civil society. The deadline for applications of accreditation of organisations is 6 March 2020. Such requests should be made by completing an online accreditation form available by clicking here.  The registration period will be from 16 March to 14 April 2020.

For more information on booking side event space, exhibitions, and NGO statements to the conference please visit http://reachingcriticalwill.org/disarmament-fora/npt/2020/ngos. Conference documents will be posted as they become available.

Published in advance of the 2020 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, this briefing book provides an overview of critical issues and offers recommendations to governments for the Review Conference and beyond.

By Ray Acheson
5 October 2020

On 2 October, the UN General Assembly convened a high-level meeting to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, an annual observance that takes place each year on 26 September. Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, most remarks were made virtually through pre-recorded video statements. Due to time constraints not all of the messages were aired.

The pandemic of nuclear weapons

With the COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop to this year’s event, several governments highlighted relevant lessons to be learned—including that transnational solidarity and investments in care, rather than in harm, are necessary pre-requisites for any hope for our survival. “COVID-19 should be a reminder that protecting humankind can’t happen through nuclear weapons but through global solidarity,” noted Indonesia.

Among others, Bangladesh, Austria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Ecuador, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Panama highlighted the relationship between the global pandemic and the global conflagration that would accompany nuclear war and critiqued the ways in which nuclear-armed states are investing in mass destruction instead of working to prevent this human-made disaster-in-waiting. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) warned that just as it was difficult to prevent COVID-19 from entering our counties, the same will be the case with a nuclear explosion. “No one is safe if the world isn’t safe,” the DRC said, while Nepal noted that no vaccine will save us from a nuclear catastrophe.

The vanity of the bomb

Almost every country speaking at the event condemned the possession of nuclear weapons, seeing them, as Costa Rica eloquently described, as “contrary to the survival instinct of our species.” In a nuclear war, Equatorial Guinea noted, there are no winners—all of humanity will lose. The theory of nuclear deterrence is a fallacy, one that gives a false sense of security and superiority to the nuclear-armed armed. “Let’s finally lay this myth to rest,” urged Austria, pointing out that nuclear deterrence does not increase security but instead perpetuates a constant threat to peace and security. Congo underscored the irrationality of developing nuclear arsenals “just to satisfy the irrepressible ego and vanity of the all-powerful,” while the Philippines described the current nuclear order as “madness personified,” pointing out that nuclear annihilation will be entirely our fault, like leaving a loaded revolver in a child’s room.

Speaker after speaker demanded the nuclear-armed states fulfil their nuclear disarmament obligations and commitments, calling for urgent action to prevent the catastrophe that can happen in an instant. The world is conflict weary, said Seychelles, exclaiming that we do not need another threat, yet nuclear weapons can destroy everything in a moment: “our presence erased, our right to existence—and that of future generations—denied. Nuclear weapons threaten everyone we love and value.” Many Pacific Island representatives spoke about the impacts their populations have suffered from years of relentless nuclear bombing—some of which, as the Marshall Islands pointed out, were even sanctioned by the United Nations under UN trusteeship resolutions.

Even without being detonated, nuclear weapons are catastrophic. The resources invested in nuclear weapons take away from not just mitigating the impacts of the current pandemic, but also of the climate crisis, poverty, and conflicts that ravage our world. Quoting from recent statistics calculated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Costa Rica noted that every minute a total of $138,699 dollars is spent on the production and modernisation of nuclear weapons. “In a world of finite resources, these numbers are immoral and unacceptable.” Several others urged the nuclear-armed states to redirect this money toward social and environmental goods, and to redirect away from violent competition towards peaceful cooperation.

“The world doesn’t need nuclear weapons,” pointed out the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). “It needs a strengthened multilateral system.” Many speakers expressed concern with rising tensions among the nuclear-armed and their active dismantling of nuclear arms control agreements. This path, several argued, is inconsistent with any credible claims to being responsible states. As Antigua and Barbuda noted, it is disingenuous to promote multilateralism and international peace and security while concurrently stockpiling tools of mass destruction.

Prohibition to elimination

This is why the vast majority of states participating in the commemorative event welcomed the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Among others, the President of the General Assembly, African Group, Arab Group, Colombia, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa highlighted the importance of the TPNW, with some explaining how it complements other international law on nuclear weapons. Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Ghana, Ireland, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Viet Nam highlighted that they have signed and ratified this Treaty, while the African Group, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Costa Rica, Cuba, DRC, Ecuador, Ghana, Maldives, Namibia, Nicaragua, Palau, PSIDS, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago urged all states to join it. Algeria, Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Liechtenstein, and Timor Leste all announced that they are currently in the process of securing ratification of the TPNW.

As Liechtenstein said, elimination of nuclear weapons isn’t a policy choice, it's a moral necessity. The TPNW is an essential part of achieving a nuclear weapon free world—and the creation of that world is essential to our survival. The pandemic has been described as a portal, through which we can create a new world; several governments picked up on that theme at the commemoration. Mexico, for example, said that it wants to help create a different world after the pandemic, not revert to the world we had a year ago. “Prohibiting and eradicating nuclear weapons” must be part of this new world, it said, while Jamaica agreed that nuclear weapons have no role in the future we need.

It feels, increasingly, like the world is crumbling around us. Like what we have built is falling down—not from natural erosion but because of deliberate, violent chipping away at the structures of peace, solidarity, and diplomacy that most of the world has worked painstakingly to create over decades. But those holding the axes are in the minority. We must remember this. They may appear imposing, they may be the most violent, have the most money, the most weapons, and be the most frightful. But the majority of us—with compassion, care, and credibility—can stand together and build something new.

Reaching Critical Will monitored the following meetings of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 2020:

• CCW Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapon systems, September 2020. 

Due to COVID-19, only one, instead of two meetings, of the GGE on LAWS took place in 2021. The CCW Meeting of the High Contracting Parties, scheduled to take place November 2020, was rescheduled to 2021. 

To receive Reaching Critical Will's CCW Report with coverage of these meetings, please sign up here to our "conventional weapons / emerging technologies of violence" mailing list.