NOTE: This list focuses mainly on Geneva-based entities and is not exhaustive.
|
Main Bodies
|
Details
|
Venue |
| General Assembly First Committee | https://www.un.org/en/ga/first/
Deals with disarmament and international security. |
New York |
|
Conference on Disarmament (CD) |
Set up in current form by the General Assembly via SSOD I [JCP2]1
Deals with (mainly) nuclear disarmament including fissile materials; PAROS;2 NSAs;3 new types of WMD including radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments. SSOD I [JCP3] styled the CD as “a single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of limited size taking decisions on the basis of consensus”. |
Geneva |
| Disarmament Commission | Set up in current form by the General Assembly via SSOD I [JCP5] https://www.un.org/disarmament/institutions/disarmament-commission/
Deals with 2 items per year: nuclear disarmament and one item drawn from a range of issue |
New York |
|
WMD |
|
|
|
Treaty Bodies |
Meetings of States Parties (MSPs), Conferences of States Parties (CSPs), etc. |
|
| Biological (BWC) | Next MSP: The 2020 Meeting of States Parties has been postponed until 22 to 25 November 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
https://meetings.unoda.org/?_sft_meeting_types=3_2_biological_weapons_convention |
Geneva |
| Chemical: (CWC) | 26th CSP: 29 Nov–3 December 2021 https://www.opcw.org/calendar/2021/11/29/csp-26-twenty-sixth-conference-states-parties |
The Hague |
| Nuclear: (NPT)
(CTBT)
(TPNW) |
10th Review Conference of NPT States Parties: dates tbc https://www.un.org/en/conferences/npt2020 NB: in the next 5-yearly review cycle of the NPT, States Parties are likely to hold Preparatory Committee meetings in Vienna, Geneva and New York.
Not yet in force 1MSP: 12-14 January 2022 |
New York
Vienna |
[1] First special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament, 1978.
[2] Prevention of an arms race in outer space.
[3] Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
|
Conventional
|
Details
|
Venue |
| Inhumane Weapons Convention: (CCW & Protocols) | Sixth Review Conference: 13 Dec – 17 Dec 2021 https://meetings.unoda.org/?_sft_meeting_types=3_3_convention_on_ccw&sf_paged=2 |
Geneva |
| Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) | Next Meeting of States Parties (MSP19): 29 Nov – 3 Dec 2021 https://www.apminebanconvention.org/meetings-of-the-states-parties/ |
Noordwijk, Netherlands |
| Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) | Next CSP (CSP7): 30 Aug – 03 Sep 2021 https://www.thearmstradetreaty.org/ |
|
| Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) | Second part of Second Review Conference (2RC) has been postponed until the health situation allows for the holding of the meeting in hybrid format. https://www.clusterconvention.org/2rc/ |
|
| Other issues of relevance to Geneva-based diplomats | Details of relevant processes, e.g. Groups of Government Experts (GGEs), Open-ended Working Groups (OEWGs), etc. | |
| Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace | 24 – 28 May 2021 | |
| ICT | OEWG on ‘Developments in the field of Information and Telecommunications in the context of International Security’, 6–10 July 2020 | New York |
| Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) | GGE on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (GGE LAWS) of the CCW Parties, 10–14 August 2020 and 21–25 September 2020 | Geneva |
| Ammunition | GGE on ‘problems arising from the accumulation of conventional ammunition stockpiles in surplus’, 20–24 July 2020 (postponed) | New York |
| Group of Governmental Experts on nuclear disarmament verification | 1 Nov – 31 Dec 2021 |
Acronyms: see those listed at the end of the Table on Weapons and Technologies that was prepared for participants of this Orientation programme.
Glossary of Terms for UN Delegates: https://unitar.org/sites/default/files/media/publication/doc/Glossary_E_0.pdf