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Demanding Disarmament and Demilitarisation at the UN General Assembly

On 23 September 2025, the United Nations General Assembly will commence its annual high-level general debate. Heads of state and government, foreign ministers, and other officials in New York will be staking out their positions on all issues confronting the world today—and WILPF’s disarmament team will be demanding urgent disarmament and demilitarisation for people and the planet.

The United Nations Headquarters building in New York City, with rows of international flags displayed outside along the street under a cloudy sky.
Image credit: Nils Huenerfuerst | Unsplash
  • 4 min
Ray Acheson
17 September 2025

The high-level debate of the UN General Assembly, which will begin on 23 September 2025, marks 80 years since the founding of the United Nations. Its original members were determined to “save succeeding generations from the scourage of war.” But the global military-industrial complex and it war profiteers have actively prevented the achievement of this goal. Instead, militarised states and private corporations have built political economies reliant on war, sending societies spiralling into violence and creating the conditions for neverending armed conflict, occupation, and genocide.

The opening weeks of the UN General Assembly each September are mostly about speeches and spectacle. But they also provide opportunities for officials from most countries of the world to meet at the highest level, to set out their priorities, and to apply pressure for policy changes. The meetings held during this time also provide an opportunity for activists and organisers to demand better from their governments and from this global institution.

Disarmament Priorities at the General Assembly

WILPF programmes will be pressing for real action for people and the planet across a range of issues during the UN General Assembly’s work, from finacing for peace to climate justice to women’s rights and gender justice. The Reaching Critical Will team will be focusing on amplifying WILPF’s demands for disarmament and demilitarisation, including:

  • An end to arms transfers and other material support to Israel, and stopping the global arms trade and war profiteering more broadly;
  • The abolition of nuclear weapons;
  • To stop using explosive weapons in populated areas;
  • To not build or use autonomous weapons or AI-enabled weapon systems;
  • To end the rampant proliferation and use of small arms and armed drones;
  • To uphold international law on cluster munitions, landmines, biological weapons, and chemical weapons; and
  • To significantly reduce military spending, divest from the military-industrial complex, and invest instead in peace, economic and envionrmental justice, gender equality, and other social goods.

The Reaching Critical Will team will monitor the high-level debate and track what governments say about weapons and war. We will post extracts from statements in our UNGA Disarmament Index and provide an analysis at the end of the debate.

The RCW team will also follow what’s happening with two high-level events on 26 September: the International Day for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and the Fourteenth Conference on Faciliating the Entry Into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Our demand for both of these meetings is clear: the total abolition of nuclear weapons is the only way to ensure these weapons are never detonated again; to prevent any further harm from uranium mining, radioactive waste, and nuclear development and deployment; and to free up the hundreds of billions of dollars a year wasted on nuclear bombs, missiles, and more.

How can you get involved?

While RCW will be taking forward WILPF’s demands at the international level, it’s also important that national governments hear from people at the local level! You can use the priorities listed above to make urgent calls on your government, depending on what is most relevant nationally.

You can also use our latest First Committee Briefing Book to find out more information and specific demands from various campaigns and coalitions working across all disarmament issues, and share this resource and its recommendations with your government.

If you want to watch the high-level debate or either of the nuclear weapon-related meetings, UN Web TV should be streaming live at https://media.un.org. RCW will also provide reports after these meetings—be sure to subscribe to Reaching Critical Will’s mailing list today!

RCW Resources for More Information

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Ray Acheson

Ray Acheson is Director of Reaching Critical Will, WILPF’s disarmament programme. They are author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages and Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy. They organise for abolition, disarmament, and demilitarisation in their work with various coalitions and provide intersectional feminist analysis and advocacy at international disarmament forums.

Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

A woman in a blue, black, and white dress smiles radiantly in front of a leafy green background.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.