First Committee Briefing Book 2025

Published ahead of the 2025 UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, 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.

Edited by Ray Acheson and Emma Bjertén • Published September 2025 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
• Nuclear weapons, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
• Biological weapons, Kings College London
• Chemical weapons, CBW Events
• Armed drones, PAX
• Autonomous weapon systems, Stop Killer Robots
• Explosive weapons in populated areas, International Network on Explosive Weapons
• Landmines, International Campaign to Ban Landmines
• Cluster munitions, Cluster Munition Coalition
• Depleted uranium weapons, International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons
• Incendiary weapons, Human Rights Watch
• Small arms and light weapons, International Action Network on Small Arms
• International arms trade, Control Arms
• Outer space, Project Ploughshares
• Cyber, Stimson Center
• Gender, intersectionality, and disarmament, Reaching Critical Will
• Disarmament and socioeconomic justice, Reaching Critical Will
• Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts, Conflict and Environment Observatory and PAX
• Youth and disarmament education, International Disarmament Institute, Pace University
• Disability and disarmament, Cape Breton University
• Torture-free trade, Torture-Free Trade Network

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