Key Developments in Humanitarian Disarmament: A Killer Robots Resolution and Measures to Address the Catastrophic Consequences of Nuclear Weapons  

Hina Uddin, Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative 

The past two months were marked by a flurry of disarmament meetings. States wrapped up their annual session of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in New York. Meetings of states parties also took place for the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), Mine Ban Treaty, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). While process dominated progress at the CCW gathering, elsewhere states took important steps on the road to a treaty on autonomous weapons systems and adopted measures to address the legacy of nuclear weapons. In addition, while civil society participation was threatened at CCW, the TPNW meeting highlighted the value of inclusivity to disarmament. 

In case you missed it: 

• On November 1, the UN General Assembly’s First Committee adopted its first resolution on autonomous weapons systems by a vote of 164 in favor, 5 against with 8 abstentions. The resolution stressed the “urgent need for the international community to address the challenges and concerns raised by autonomous weapons systems.” It requested the UN secretary-general seek the views of states, civil society, and others on lethal autonomous weapons systems and decided to include lethal autonomous weapons systems on the provisional agenda of next year’s First Committee. The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on the First Committee autonomous weapons system resolution before the end of December.
• First Committee concluded its Seventy-Eighth Session on November 3 in New York. Over the course of the month-long meeting, it adopted 56 texts, including 55 resolutions and one decision. Reaching Critical Will published weekly editorials and reports in the First Committee Monitor, and posted all available statements, resolutions, voting records, and explanations. 
• The 2023 Landmine Monitor, published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), was released on November 14. It found that new use, which led to higher casualties in 2022, was “one of the greatest challenges to the norm against antipersonnel landmines.” The Monitor documented new use by states not party Myanmar and Russia as well as five non-state armed groups and said that state party Ukraine is investigating reports of antipersonnel landmine use by its forces in and around Izium, Ukraine. 
• The 2023 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Meeting of High Contracting Parties took place from November 15-17 at the UN in Geneva. From the outset, Russia objected to the participation of observers, including the European Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and nongovernmental organizations. Although other states widely supported observers’ full participation, due to the forum’s consensus-based approach, most of the meeting was held in an informal session. In a session closed to observers, high contracting parties agreed to a mandate for the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapons systems to “further consider and formulate, by consensus, a set of elements of an instrument, without prejudging its nature” and to submit a report to the Seventh Review Conference in 2026. The GGE will meet for 10 days in 2024 (March 4-8 and August 26-30). For more information, see Reaching Critical Will’s CCW Report.
• Incendiary weapons were also a major topic of discussion at the CCW Meeting of High Contracting Parties in November. A joint statement from eight countries called for the president of next year’s meeting to hold informal consultations on the status of CCW Protocol III on incendiary weapons and to report back under a separate agenda item. That statement plus statements by the Arab Group, Non-Aligned Movement, and a group of 63 states expressed concerns about the grave humanitarian effects caused by the weapons. At least 15 individual countries, several civil society organizations, and the ICRC supported these positions in other statements. States could not reach consensus on approving consultations, but momentum for efforts to address the civilian harm form incendiary weapons continues to grow.   
• The Twenty-First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty was held from November 20-24 in Geneva. Germany, serving as president of the meeting, highlighted several challenges faced by the treaty, including low reporting rates, delayed stockpile destruction, lack of national implementation legislation, and reports of use by state party Ukraine. 
• The Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place from November 27-December 1 at the UN headquarters in New York. The meeting reviewed progress made on implementation since states parties’ first meeting in June 2022. States parties also approved five decisions, which included adopting voluntary reporting guidelines and a format for victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation and assistance; agreeing to continue discussions on an international trust fund to address harm from nuclear weapons use and testing; and establishing a process to examine the threats posed by nuclear weapons and the deterrence paradigm.  
• Throughout the week of the TPNW’s Second Meeting of States Parties, civil society and representatives of affected communities advocated actively to promote the nuclear weapons ban and efforts to address the legacies of past use and testing. They organized at least 65 events and delivered 45 statements, including a joint statement from 27 affected communities and 45 allied organizations. In a session on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, Karina Lester, a second-generation survivor of the British nuclear tests in Australia and an International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) ambassador, addressed the body, reinforcing the key perspective of affected communities in TPNW discussions. 
• November 30 marked the UN Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare. UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s message on the day insisted on the end of the use of “these repugnant weapons.”
• The Philippines government, in cooperation with Non-Violence International Southeast Asia, hosted the first Indo-Pacific regional meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems from December 13-14 in Manila. 
• Civilians have borne the brunt of the Israel-Palestine armed conflict since October 7 when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed more than 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostages, more than 100 of whom remain in captivity. Over that period, attacks by Israeli armed forces on Gaza have reportedly displaced about 1.9 million people, according to the UN, and killed more than 18,700 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Multiple humanitarian disarmament organizations have released statements on the conflict, including expressing concern about the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of white phosphorus by Israeli armed forces in Gaza and Lebanon has also been documented. 

The year 2024 will bring real-world challenges for the humanitarian disarmament community, including but not limited to those in Gaza and Ukraine. At the same time, there will be opportunities for the international community to respond to those challenges through implementation of existing tools, such as the explosive weapons political declaration, or the development of new tools, such as a new treaty on autonomous weapons systems.