Building on the legal commitments to general and complete disarmament – including those in the United Nation’s founding documents, the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – we urge the UN General Assembly to convene a Special Session on Disarmament based on the Objectives and Agenda agreed upon by the Open Ended Working Group in 2017. 

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and use of nuclear threats have horrified the world, and emphasised the risks inherent to proliferation of conventional arms and nuclear weapons. Before this, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that governments have failed to invest sufficiently in public health infrastructure, while prioritising spending on military modernization, procurement and operations. 

In these unprecedented times, we appeal to states and others to harness their capabilities to achieve collective security through cooperative international agreements, by reinvigorating efforts to achieve sustainable, verified and irreversible disarmament.

We call on states, including our governments and their representatives, to support the activation of a Special Session on Disarmament at the United Nations General Assembly.