July 2025 E-News

Over the next three weeks, the world will commemorate 80 years since the US detonated a nuclear weapon in so-called New Mexico and dropped two more on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The bombs imposed the deadly nuclear age upon the world, manifesting through thousands of nuclear detonations euphemistically called “tests”, spreading radioactive poison through water, land, and bodies. The nuclear age has devastated communities, particularly Indigenous nations; has wasted billions on arms races, maintenance, and modernisation; and has created the toxic culture of “might makes right” that drives all of the global violence and harm we are experiencing today. Nuclear-armed states are committing genocide, unlawfully bombing and executing people, occupying countries, and fuelling conflicts around the world. 80 years on, it is time to rise up: for the survivors, for affected communities, lands, and waters, and for us all. We must abolish nuclear weapons as part of our broader work for justice, demilitarisation, and peace. We cannot keep relying on luck to save us from nuclear armageddon, we must end it now through action.

Upcoming disarmament meetings

The second substantive session of the Open-ended working group on the prevention of an arms race in outer space in all its aspects is scheduled to take place from 21–25 July 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention will hold ameeting from 11–22 August 2025 in Geneva.
The Eleventh Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (CSP11) will take place on 25–29 August 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. Check out conference documents on our website and subscribe to our ATT Monitorto receive coverage of the meeting.
The Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS) is meeting for its second session of 2025 from 1–5 September in Geneva, Switzerland. On the RCW website, you can find previous reports, statements, conference documents, and more! Subscribe to the CCW Report to receive updates!

Recently concluded disarmament meetings

The Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Meetings took place from 17–20 June 2025 at the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) in Geneva, Switzerland. Check the website of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions for key messages and statements.
The Preparatory Meeting of States on the Global Framwork for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management was held from 23–27 June 2025 in New York. Check out the RCW website for documents, statements, and coverage of the meeting!
The Open-Ended Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies met for its eleventh substantive session on 7–11 July 2025 in New York.

Top Stories

Stop Arming Israel

On 30 June, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, released a new report investigating the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler colonial project of occupation, apartheid, and genocide. WILPF welcomes this report, for which it made a submission and delivered a statement in support of, to the Human Rights Council. Image credit: Ray Acheson

It is no coincidence that immediately after the report’s release, the US government imposed sanctions on the Special Rapporteur, refering to her work as “campaigns of political and economic warfare” against US national interests. As WILPF stated in a recent article, “Once again, the US government shows that it is prioritising profit for CEOs and corporations, and has no interest in fulfilling its international legal obligation to prevent genocide.”

The US had also issued an executive order in February against the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr. Karim Khan, for investigating Israel for war crimes. Microsoft, which supplied the Court with digital services such as email, helped turn off Mr. Khan’s ICC email account, freezing him out of communications with colleagues just a few months after the Court had issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for his country’s actions in Gaza.

The retaliation against people investigating and/or opposing Israel’s genocide does not stop at the United States. Last month, the United Kingdom banned the group Palestine Action under “anti-terrorism” laws. Supporters of the group now risk up to 14 years in prison, and arrests of protesters opposed to the listing have already begun.

Despite intense repression, people continue to organise worlwide against the genocide of Palestinians, achieving several victories. In the past month, Barcelona broke relations with Israel; Trinity College Dublin cut ties with Israel while Queen’s University Belfast divested from Israeli interests; activists in NYC are working to get two weapon companies making equipment for Israel out of the Brooklyn Navy Yards; French dock workers blocked arms shipment to Israel; the shipping company Maersk divested from companies linked to Israeli settlements; land and sea convoys left different parts of the world with the aim of break Israel’s siege of Gaza;” the Hague Group, convened by Colombia and South Africa, is having an Emergency Ministerial Conference in Bogotá. Join the livestream of the opening ceremony.

WILPF continues to call for holding Israel accountable for its crimes, for arms emargos, and for an end to the genocide, and to emphasise the gendered harms of Israel’s setler colonialism.

Israeli and US attacks against Iran

On 13 June, Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on Iran, targeting nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, senior military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilian infrastructure. On 21 June, the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities.Image credit: WILPF (Photo credit: Pixabay)

WILPF joins the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in condemning the US reckless attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which have undermined international efforts to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. Reporting has indicated that the strikes did not destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. Moreover, as WILPF noted, the attacks against Iran’s nuclear programme are not justifiable or lawful. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US intelligence agencies have consistently found that Iran does not have an ongoing nuclear weapon programme, while Israel and the United States are both nuclear-armed states.

As WILPF noted, “War is not a non-proliferation strategy. The idea that some countries can be trusted with nuclear weapons and others cannot is without merit. As the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said, ‘There are no right hands for the wrong weapons.’”

WILPF also underlined that “The possession of nuclear weapons by some states is the leading cause of proliferation. Theories like nuclear deterrence and strategic stability incentive proliferation because countries that feel threatened by nuclear-armed states see value in acquiring their own nuclear weapons. All countries must acknowledge that any country that relies on humanity-ending weapons in their security doctrines only makes the world less safe, and they must eliminate their nuclear weapon programmes immediately.”

80th anniversaries of the Trinity Test and of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

16 July 2025 marks 80 years since the detonation of the first nuclear weapon. While the US government claimed the lands were “empty,” dire consequences were borne by local Indigenous communities, uranium mining workers, and others living near the test site.

The test was followed only weeks later by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on 6 and 9 August 2025. An estimated 140,000 people perished in Hiroshima, and another 70,000 lost their lives in Nagasaki, with countless others experiencing enduring health issues and trauma. In honour of the estimated 38,000 children killed in the attacks, ICAN has launched an online memorial. (Photo by Caitlin James on Unsplash)

The US began the nuclear age with these three bombings. Today, the nine-nuclear armed possess together more than 12,200 nuclear weapons, and are spending more than 100 billion dollars a year on their modernisation. In the midst of rising threats to use nuclear weapons and military confrontation among nuclear-armed states, the use of nuclear weapons is a horrifyingly real prospect.

But this is not a time for despair; it’s time for action. There are actions everyone can take, including:

Demand and end to, and reparations for all those impacted by, nuclear weapon tests, bomb development, uranium mining, and radioactive waste;
Call on nuclear-armed states to immediately cease their nuclear weapon modernisation programmes and redirect that money towards nuclear disarmament, decommissioning and clean-up of nuclear sites, and a just transition for workers to socially and ecologically safe industries;
Call on your government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which prohibits all nuclear testing as well as the development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons, and all other related activities;
Urge your local city or town council to join ICAN’s Cities Appeal in support of the TPNW;
Ask your parliamentarians, senators, or congressional representatives to sign the ICAN Parliamentary Pledge and work for nuclear disarmament;
Get involved in ICAN’s Don’t Bank on the Bomb initiative to remove your money from nuclear weapons and compel your bank, pension fund, or financial institution to stop funding nuclear weapon production; and
Find out if the universities in your area are helping to build nuclear weapons and campaign to end those contracts.

Move the Money!

During the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in The Hague on 24–25 June, NATO’s 32 member states agreed to increase their overall military spending target to 5 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Only Spain did not commit to the target. The 5 per cent target is a huge increase from the previous 2 per cent to which NATO states had committed previously. (Image credit: Andrea Marino)

As highlighted in a recent WILPF article, the call for NATO’s increased military expenditure comes at a time when the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows the world’s military expenditure has already reached $2718 billion—the highest global level ever recorded. Compared to 2023, military expenditure increased 9.4 per cent in 2024, making it the highest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War.

Since its foundation in 1915, WILPF has opposed arms racing and highlighted the devastating impact of military expenditure on peace and planet, explaining how it undercuts or impedes development, not least by diverting funds from health, wellbeing, infrastructure, food and water supplies, among others. Recently, WILPF launched the new initiative Move the Money to oppose the increase in military spending and demanding investment in the people and the planet. Check out the webpage to learn more about the initative and what you can do! If you want to learn more about how investment in war divests from much needed public services, check out a recent webinar organised by WILPF on Financing for Development.

Protecting civilians from landmines

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania deposited their instruments of withdrawal from the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty on 27 June 2025, which will take effect in six months. Earlier in June, Finland and Poland’s parliaments formally approved proposals to leave the treaty and their withdrawal deposits are understood to be imminent. Ukraine also signed a decree announcing the withdrawal from the treaty, which it had ratified in 2025. (Photo by Dmitry Shamis on Unsplash)

The UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said he was gravely alarmed by the steps taken or being considered by these states to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty. He emphasised: “The persistent and long-term risks of serious harm to civilians, including children, caused by these weapons far outweigh any military advantage that could be obtained by their use. Like other international humanitarian law treaties, the Ottawa Convention was principally designed to govern the conduct of parties to armed conflicts. Adhering to them in times of peace only to withdraw from them in times of war or for newly invoked national security considerations seriously undermines the framework of international humanitarian law.”

The UN Secretary-General also expressed grave concern by these recent announcements and urged all states to adhere to humanitarian disarmament treaties and immediately halt any steps towards their withdrawal.

The petition calling on European states to stay in the Mine Ban Treaty has already gathered more than 80,000 signatures. More than 20 eminent leaders, including the Former Foreign Ministers of Canada and Norway, have signed the joint appeal to uphold both the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-personnel Landmines and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Over 100 Nobel Laureates are urging European countries to reconsider their withdrawals.

Gender and Disarmament Database: Recommendation of the month

Our recommendation of the month is the factsheet, “Gender and the Mine Ban Treaty,” published by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitors. The factsheet provides an update to the Monitor’s regular reporting on gender and diversity issues. 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.

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

Second Session of the Open-ended Working Group on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space
21–25 July 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland

Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention
11–22 August 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland

Eleventh Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty
25–29 August 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland

Second Session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
1–5 September 2025 | Geneva, Switzerland

Events

Focus on the arms trade: state responsibility, accountability and private actor compliance
30 July 2025 | Online

From Trinity to Today: Nuclear Weapons and the Way Forward
10 July 2025 | Washington D.C, United States

The Fire Still Burns: Hiroshima, Resistance and Disarmament
6 August 2025 | Online

Featured news

Parliamentary report calls on France to apologise to French Polynesia for nuclear tests. A French parliamentary report published in June said that France should apologise to French Polynesia for the fallout of nuclear tests there over three decades, which led to harmful radiation exposure. The parliamentary investigation was largely inspired by the Moruroa Files modelling impacts of French nuclear testing led by Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, Disclose, and Interprt.
New ICAN report reveals increase in nuclear weapons spending. ICAN’s new report “Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2024” shows that the nine nuclear-armed states spent more than 100 billion USD on their nuclear arsenals—an increase of approximately 11 per cent from the year before. The private sector earned at least 42.5 billion USD from their nuclear weapon contracts in 2024 alone.
The US government is reviewing its commitment to AUKUS. The Pentagon haslaunched a review of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal with the UK and Australia. The review to determine whether the US should scrap the project is being led by Elbridge Colby, a Department of Defense official who previously expressed skepticism about AUKUS. Last year, Colby said that it “would be crazy” for the US to have fewer nuclear-powered submarines.
Russia and China to sign the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ). The Star reportsthat the Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said that Russia and China agreed to become signatories to the SEANWFZ Treaty, while the United States is currently reviewing the treaty before signing.
UK and France signed a pact threatening nuclear weapon use. As reported by the New York Times, “Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron said that for the first time, their countries would work together to deploy nuclear weapons if allies in Europe came under extreme threat. While each will retain control over its arsenal, both will coordinate on policy and more closely align their nuclear doctrines."
The US government proposed a 29 per cent increase in nuclear warhead development and production. The Los Alamos Study Group highlights that the US Department of Energy has released its 2026 budget request, which proposes an increase by 5.907 billion USD, or 29 per cent, in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration. “This is the largest percentage increase, and the largest constant-dollar increase, in spending on nuclear warhead development, testing, and production since 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” notes the Group.
Experts criticise the UK’s defence review. Last month, the UK published its Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which includesrecommendations committing 15 billion GPB to the UK nuclear weapon programme, among other measures (check out our previous newsletter for more information). Lewis Brooks and Charlie Linney of Saferworld wrote a piece examining the document and arguin that the SDR risks undermining global peace and security through its militarised narrative, narrow scope, and short-term thinking. Secure Scotland also respondedto the SDR, stating the document lays out an “unachievable plan for an ever more hostile, aggressive and colonialist set of behaviours that will do nothing to address the climate emergency, historical transnational ideological differences, or the starvation, homelessness and gendered violence that offer the real threat to people.”
France publishes new National Strategy Review. On Monday 14 July, France published its new “defense roadmap,” which announces a further increase in military spending through 2027. The policy document contains 11 strategic objectives, among them nuclear deterrence, "resilience" challenges for the nation, and the demands of a war economy.
New report analyses how nuclear war would cascade through society and economy. The US National Academy of Sciences has just released a comprehensive report on the “Environmental Effects of Nuclear War”. The report extends analysis beyond physical damage to examine impacts on human social and economic systems.
The US government killed almost as many civilians in 52 days as the previous 23 years of US action in Yemen. This is one of the findings of the new report launched by Airwars that analysed the full human cost of Trump’s eight-week bombing campaign in Yemen in March to April 2025. In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider, Airwars documented at least 224 civilians in Yemen killed by US airstrikes—nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by US actions since 2002.
OpenAI secures contract with US military. OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, won a 200 million USD contract with the US military to “develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains”. Last year, the company quietly removed a ban on using its apps for such things as weapons development and warfare. By the end of 2024, OpenAI partnered with Anduril, a miliary tech company that produces autonomous weapons among other related technologies.
Experts criticize tech company CEO’s claims about AI warfare. Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey recorded a TED talk in which he defends the development of autonomous weapon systems. In response, Elke Schwarz of Queen Mary University wrote a piece entitled “Don’t believe the hype: Unsustainable marketing narratives about autonomous weapons raise urgency for international legislation,” in which she refutes arguments of mass-produced autonomous weapons as a deterrent, highlighting that war inevitably brings mass suffering, death, and destruction.
US Supreme Court rejects Mexico’s lawsuit against top firearm manufacturers. In the lawsuit, Mexico was arguing that the companies’ business practices were helping fuel cartel violence plaguing the country. In its rulling, the Court “tossed out the case under a US law that largely shields gunmakers from liability when their firearms are used in crime,” as reported by AP News.
Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) adoptsa report measures against the trade in goods used for death penalty, torture and other ill-treatment. The report, which focuses on the implementation of Recommendation CM/REC(2021)2, contains strong recommendations, including widening lists of prohibited and controlled goods to reflect those proposed by the Special Rapporteur on Torture, developing best practice on the monitoring and oversight of trade fairs, and collective support for the development of an international legally binding instrument on torture-free trade.