Disarmament & Peace
Reducing the threats posed by weapons developments has been at the centre of the concerns of the United Nations
since its inception. In recent years, there has been growing understanding of the relationship between processes
of arms control and disarmament and other key approaches to achieving sustainable peace. In New York and Geneva,
QUNO has made this relationship central to its work throughout its history. This engagement has included for example,
a central role in establishing a place for non-governmental organisations at the First Special Session of the General
Assembly on Disarmament in 1978, behind-the-scenes engagement with the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention
in the early 1990s, engagement at an early stage with the negotiation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, and
current thinking on post-conflict strategies for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants.
QUNO's programme on disarmament and peacebuilding works towards the enhancement of approaches, policies and institutions which:
- Promote the demilitarization of conflict settings and diminish the contribution of the weapons culture to the lethality and duration of violent conflict;
- Incorporate human and societal interests into “security” policy;
- Address the economic and social roots of violent conflict and the requirements of post-conflict peacebuidling;
- Engage the causes and consequences of weapons developments and proliferation;
- Strengthen the roles of non-violent conflict transformation actors and processes in the prevention of violent conflict and the overcoming of its effects.
QUNO is engaged in both New York and Geneva with the principal mechanisms of the UN system for addressing disarmament concerns, including the First Committee of the UN General Assembly (New York), the Conference on Disarmament (Geneva), negotiating and review conference processes dealing with biological weapon, nuclear non-proliferation and so-called “inhumane” weapons, and the facilitation of NGO engagement with the multi-lateral system.
In recent years, QUNO’s work in the pursuit of the above aims has been particularly concerned with issues related to the wide-spread proliferation and use of small arms and light weapons.
In Geneva, QUNO undertakes much of its disarmament-related work under the auspices of the Geneva Forum, a project undertaken jointly with the United Nations Institute on Disarmament Research and the Programme on Strategic and International Security Studies of the Graduate Institute of International Studies. The activities of this project are entitled “Building Peace and Security Partnerships”.
Click on the links below for more information about QUNO’s work on Disarmament and Peace:
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