Mr Chair, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Every day, around the world, staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) witness the devastating human cost of armed conflict:
- The use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas causes devastating civilian casualties and destroys essential infrastructure,
- Anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions inflict appalling suffering long after hostilities ended.
- Irresponsible arms transfers fuel cycles of violence.
- New and emerging technologies of warfare bring new risks for civilians.
- And above all, nuclear weapons continue to pose an existential threat to humanity.
Against this backdrop, the work of the First Committee is more important than ever.
Disarmament and non-proliferation are essential to preventing war and strengthening international peace and security. They are also critical to reducing the human cost of armed conflict and advancing the protective purpose of international humanitarian law.
As geopolitical tensions mount and the prospect of major conflict looms larger, we must strengthen and expand the treaties and arrangements overseen by this Committee. These are not peacetime luxuries. Their protective value is greatest precisely when the threat of armed conflict grows.
States must therefore redouble their efforts to implement existing disarmament treaties fully and faithfully, advance their universalization, and develop new instruments to address the specific risks posed by new technologies of warfare.
Mr. Chair,
In this context, the ICRC would like to applaud the efforts made by many States to embrace and strengthen disarmament instruments.
In May, Lebanon acceded to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in the midst of armed conflict, following the Marshall Islands and Tonga in 2025. Since 2020, 12 States have joined the Arms Trade Treaty, strengthening the foundations for a truly global standard on responsible arms transfers.
At the second international conference on the Political Declaration on EWIPA in Costa Rica in November 2025, States reaffirmed their commitment to the Declaration and shared progress made towards its implementation. In Laos last month, the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions strongly condemned any use of cluster munitions by any actor, under any circumstances.
These steps demonstrate that progress is possible—and that States continue to choose protection over suffering, even in difficult times.
Mr. Chair,
We submitted to the First Committee a Working Paper covering many of the issues on the Committee’s agenda. Let me however briefly mention two of our most pressing concerns: nuclear weapons and autonomous weapon systems.
Any use of nuclear weapons would cause catastrophic consequences for humanity, and they are the only weapon of mass destruction that is yet to be comprehensively eliminated. But today the risk of nuclear weapons use is at its highest in decades.
Against this backdrop, in May the NPT Review Conference again failed to reach consensus on an outcome document. Yet the international community still has an opportunity – and a responsibility – to progress towards nuclear disarmament this year: through the work of this Committee; and through the First Review Conference on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in December. We will discuss this further next week.
Mr. Chair,
New technologies of warfare, including the military use of artificial intelligence, are increasingly shaping today’s conflicts. They create new dangers for civilians, amplify the speed and scale of violations of International Humanitarian Law, and compound the devastation of warfare. The international community must act now to address the humanitarian, ethical and legal challenges they pose.
The urgency is particularly acute for autonomous weapons systems. Last month the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, adopted its final report by consensus. States with very different strategic interests and positions agreed on a set of elements of an instrument to regulate autonomous weapons systems. Together with the substantial work accumulated over the past three years, these elements provide a strong and sufficient basis to move to negotiations.
While this is an important step, States must now build on it to fully address the challenges that autonomous weapons systems create. In particular, States must prohibit unpredictable autonomous weapons and those designed or used to target persons, and impose strict international legal limits on all other autonomous weapons.
In August this year, the ICRC President and the UN Secretary-General jointly called on States to decide, at the CCW Review Conference in November, to launch negotiations on a new Protocol regulating autonomous weapons systems. The ICRC welcomes the growing momentum: 47 States as well as the African Group have expressed support for negotiations, bringing the total number of States explicitly calling for this step to over 70. And this week, further States have added their voices in support.
The message is clear:
States must move decisively to ensure that the future of warfare is governed by humans, not machines.
Mr. Chair,
As the outcome document of the IHL and peace workstream of Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law underscores, “Disarmament plays a critical role in upholding humanitarian norms, reducing the risk of escalation and building confidence among States, and hence helping to achieve the objective of peace for all people.”
Humanitarian disarmament treaties and commitments are among multilateralism’s greatest achievements, demonstrating that collective action can reduce the suffering caused by armed conflict. The First Committee has a vital role in preserving and strengthening these gains.
The ICRC stands ready to support States in turning political resolve into concrete action to advance humanitarian disarmament and protect civilians.
Thank you for your attention.
