Developments and trends, 2024

In 2024, the General Assembly adopted its biennial resolutions on the “United Nations Disarmament Information Programme” (79/69) and the “United Nations study on disarmament and non-proliferation education” (79/28). These mandates, alongside the Assembly’s recurring resolution on youth, disarmament and non-proliferation (78/31), continued to guide the information and outreach activities of the Office for Disarmament Affairs and relevant efforts by other United Nations entities. The aims of this work included providing Member States, the diplomatic community, non-governmental organizations and the public with unbiased, up-to-date and relevant information on multilateral disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control, as well as promoting young people’s meaningful and inclusive participation in the field.

The Office for Disarmament Affairs engaged a record number of young people globally in its educational and empowerment programmes during the year, with participants taking part online and at in-person events held in Japan, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the United States and beyond. The second edition of the Youth Champions for Disarmament Training Programme brought together a diverse cohort of 15 selected young people who developed community projects and participated in key United Nations forums, delivering statements and leading side events at the General Assembly, First Committee, and the fourth Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Office also launched the Sci-fAI Futures Youth Challenge, engaging youth aged 13 to 29 in exploring the risks of AI in military operations, and supported youth-led discussions at the twenty-third Republic of Korea-United Nations Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Issues. Through its fourth annual #StepUp4Disarmament campaign, the Office encouraged young people to advocate against nuclear weapons by completing a distance of 8.29 km in observance of the International Day against Nuclear Tests (29 August). The year also featured notable regional initiatives such as the GenerAcción Paz programme, which engaged 10 Spanish-speaking youth leaders in Latin America.

The Office successfully concluded its largest youth-focused initiative to date, the Youth Leader Fund for a World without Nuclear Weapons, which provided 100 scholarships to young people from 63 countries to participate in online coursework on nuclear disarmament. From this cohort, 50 participants were selected to join a week-long, in-person study visit to Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Tokyo. The programme culminated in the Youth Leader Conference, where participants officially adopted the DeclarACTION — a document outlining their commitments and planned actions for nuclear disarmament advocacy.

In 2024, the Office for Disarmament Affairs continued to strengthen the sustainability and impact of its educational offerings in line with its 2022 Disarmament Education Strategy. The Vienna Office maintained its role as the Office’s education hub, supporting the strategic prioritization, development and execution of educational initiatives throughout the year. A significant milestone was the launch of a new disarmament education website that consolidated resources, tools and learning opportunities for diverse audiences. The Office’s other activities in this area included recurring events in the Vienna Conversation Series and in the Disarmament Conversation Series of its Geneva Branch, as well as programming delivered to hundreds of learners by the Office’s regional centres in Lomé, Lima and Kathmandu. Meanwhile, the Disarmament Education Dashboard continued to grow, attracting over 4,000 new users and offering specialized e-learning courses for diplomats, youth leaders and other stakeholders. A course focused on youth and disarmament gained particular attention, furthering the Office’s commitment to engaging young people in disarmament efforts.

Meanwhile, fellowship and training programmes retained their vital role in developing new expertise within the disarmament field. The United Nations Disarmament Fellowship, Training and Advisory Services Programme — established in 1978 to promote greater disarmament knowledge among Member States, particularly developing countries — trained diplomats and other officials from 25 States. From March to August, the second iteration of the Youth for Biosecurity Fellowship engaged 20 young leaders in life sciences from 17 States in the global South, attracting over 2,400 applications from more than 100 countries — a 200 per cent increase from the previous year — and offering participants online learning sessions with experts, a collaborative research project, and a 10-day immersive study visit to Geneva during the fourth session of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention. Additionally, the Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore co-organized two sessions of the United Nations-Singapore Cyber Fellowship.

In partnership with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the European Union, the Office concluded the second year of its initiative “Promoting responsible innovation in artificial intelligence for peace and security”. The programme delivered a series of events — including in- person workshops held in Estonia, Portugal and Belgium — aimed at supporting greater engagement from the civilian AI community in mitigating the risks that the misuse of civilian AI technology could pose to international peace and security.

The Office attracted over 600,000 visitors to its main website (https://disarmament.unoda.org), which regularly featured updates, speeches and press releases in all six United Nations languages, even as the website underwent a significant upgrade to improve content management, security and performance. The Meetings Place website (https://meetings.unoda.org) also improved, offering faster data entry, better metadata and new features for document generation.

In 2024, the Office continued its comprehensive database integration initiative aimed at creating a unified portal for disarmament-related data. Major milestones included an upgrade of the Military Expenditures Database with enhanced reporting tools and analytics capabilities, and the launch of the new Gender database, providing sex-disaggregated data on delegate participation in multilateral disarmament forums. Meanwhile, the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms began a two- phase upgrade scheduled for completion in 2025, intended to improve data accessibility and transparency.

For the forty-eighth consecutive year since 1976, the Office published the United Nations Disarmament Yearbook, providing a comprehensive account of the previous year’s developments in the field of disarmament. The 2023 Yearbook was the second to feature a graphically enhanced preview edition issued in advance of the comprehensive text, which was published online later in the year.

Throughout 2024, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs participated in numerous interviews with international media outlets, including the Sankei Shimbun in Japan and Jibek Joly Television in Kazakhstan. The High Representative also briefed the press on the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors. Media coverage of the Office’s initiatives expanded significantly, with the Youth Leader Fund study visit to Japan garnering attention from news outlets in Australia, Japan and Somalia. To further enhance its reach, the Office issued 10 press releases during the year and strengthened its digital presence by distributing its podcasts on major platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, while maintaining active engagement on its Flickr, Instagram and X social media channels.