Disability and Disarmament: A Call for Inclusion in Global Security

At Cape Breton University, we recognize the critical importance of disability rights in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful, and just world. The intersection of disability rights and disarmament is a crucial yet often overlooked area in global security discussions.

In October 2023, two CBU professors, disability rights scholar and advocate Dr. Tammy Bernasky and peace researcher and disarmament advocate Dr. Sean Howard, launched what has now become a new international movement to raise the profile of disability issues – and increase the participation of persons with disabilities – in discussions and negotiations on disarmament at the United Nations and beyond.

The main focus of our campaign is the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, which meets annually each autumn in New York to consider resolutions and decisions on the full spectrum of contemporary disarmament issues, from handguns to H-bombs, all of which are matters of profound concern and deep interest for millions of persons with disabilities.

As documented on this site, at the 2024 session of the First Committee the initiative launched by Drs. Bernasky and Howard achieved two significant breakthroughs: the first ever joint civil society statement on disability and disarmament, delivered by Janet E. Lord of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability; and the first ever side event on the topic, hosted by the UN Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Through our involvement in this important movement, Cape Breton University is committed to raising awareness, advancing research, and promoting advocacy for the inclusion of disability rights in international security and disarmament discussions. This initiative serves as a call to action, urging decision-makers worldwide to recognize the leadership and valuable contributions of persons with disabilities in shaping a more peaceful and accessible world.

Building Momentum: Disability and Disarmament at the 2025 UN First Committee

The initiative’s aims and objectives for the 2025 session of the UN First Committee were set out in the First Committee Briefing Book published on September 17 by the Reaching Critical Will (RCW) Programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The Briefing Book contains 20 chapters from a diverse global civil society coalition working to advance the 21^st century humanitarian disarmament agenda. You can read the contribution by Drs. Bernasky and Howard here.

Making History: Disability and Disarmament at the 2024 UN First Committee

In October 2024, a historic Joint Civil Society Statement on Disability and Disarmament was delivered at the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security by leading experts, including two of our own professors, Dr. Sean Howard and Dr. Tammy Bernasky. This groundbreaking statement calls for the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in disarmament processes, emphasizing that they are not victims to be assisted, but leaders in the quest for peace.

The statement underscores the need for disability inclusion in disarmament dialogues, aligning with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which views persons with disabilities as agents of change, not as passive recipients of aid. It highlights the disproportionate impact that armed conflict has on persons with disabilities and urges the global community to include their voices in efforts to dismantle the systems and weapons of violence that threaten global security.

Disability as a Missing Dimension in Disarmament Diplomacy

At a side event on October 29, 2024, Dr. Tammy Bernasky played a significant role by summarizing the Joint Civil Society Statement on Disability and Disarmament (p. 39). She emphasized the need to recognize persons with disabilities as rights-holders who can meaningfully contribute to disarmament efforts. Dr. Bernasky advocated for integrating disability considerations into existing resolutions and introducing a new resolution focused on disability, disarmament, and non-proliferation. This session underlined the importance of including disability in disarmament discussions to counter the marginalization of people with disabilities in policymaking, particularly in international forums like the First Committee. The event was a critical step in building momentum for future efforts to elevate disability rights in disarmament diplomacy.

First Committee Monitor

Dr. Howard & Dr. Bernasky reviewed the session to assess and highlight the current state of disability inclusion within disarmament discussions at the UN First Committee. They aimed to identify gaps where disability considerations were either missing or insufficiently addressed, and to advocate for stronger integration of disability rights into disarmament processes. You can read Dr. Howard and Dr. Bernasky’s review here on page 42.

By reviewing the session, they were able to spot opportunities for advocacy, analyze the impact of existing resolutions, and emphasize the need for more comprehensive approaches that recognize persons with disabilities as active participants in shaping disarmament outcomes. Their review helped to push for a paradigm shift—from viewing disability as a mere humanitarian issue to framing it within the context of human rights and agency, thus ensuring that disability inclusion becomes a central and permanent aspect of future disarmament diplomacy.

Disability Rights and Nuclear Disarmament

Dr. Howard & Dr. Bernasky contributed a Working Paper to the Third Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), held in New York on March 3-7. Adopted by 122 states in 2017, and in force since January 2021, the TPNW is a humanitarian disarmament treaty containing a number of ‘positive obligations’ on victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation to combat the multiple, grievous impacts and legacies of nuclear use and testing. You can read the paper entitled Alignment and Alliance: Disability Rights in the Implementation and Review of the TPNW here. The Working Paper argues that the process of fulfilling these obligations, and furthering the TPNW’s other main goals, must be as disability-inclusive and -responsive as possible, linking assistance to agency in line with the CRPD.

A summary of the Working Paper can be read on pages 45-46 of this edition of Reaching Critical Will’s Nuclear Ban Daily. In their conclusion – ‘Broadening Our Base, Making Our Case’ – Drs. Howard and Bernasky argue that mainstreaming disability rights “will enable the TPNW community to be further enriched and diversified,” raising “global consciousness of nuclear legacies, realities, and dangers” too be “raised in ways rendering the case for abolition – and, thus, the treaty – more compelling. Given the daunting distance to our ultimate goal – a nuclear-weapon-free world of cooperative” They stress, however, that such mainstreaming is fundamentally “not a question of strategy but respecting human rights enshrined in international law.”

Dr. Howard and Dr. Bernasky also contributed an article to Reaching Critical Will’s NPT News in Review on April 24. Published in advance of a crucial meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York (April 28-May 9), their piece – ‘The Non-Proliferation of Prejudice: Disability Rights in the New NPT Era’ – concludes by arguing that, at a time when “disability rights are under ferocious attack” in many countries and quarters, “it is high time to make the vital connection between the non-proliferation of weapons that threaten all humanity and the non-proliferation of prejudice against such an important part of the human family”. You can read the full piece on pages 10 and 11 of NPT News in Review (NIR20.1.pdf).

JOIN OUR MOVEMENT

Endorsements

Our Disability and Disarmament Initiative is endorsed by:

Endorsing Organizations

Able South Carolina
Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)
Campaign Against Arms Trade
Colombian Campaign Against Landmines (CCCM)
Conflict and Environment Observatory
Disability Rights International
Facing Finance (German member of STOP KILLER ROBOTS)
Inspiring Girls Mexico
International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC)
International Humanitarian Law and Youth Initiative (IHLYI)
Latin American Network of Associations of Survivors of Antipersonnel Mines, Explosive Remnants of War and other Persons with Disabilities (RED-LAT)
Legacies of War
Mines Action Canada
Peace Movement Aotearoa
Aotearoa New Zealand Campaign on Military Spending
Women, Peace and Security National Network, Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand Network on Explosive Weapons
Norwegian People’s Aid
Nova Scotia League for Equal Opportunities
PROTECTION, France
Reaching Critical Will, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Soka Gakkai International
SPADO (Sustainable Peace and Action Organization), Pakistan
Tangata Group
United States International Council on Disabilities

Individual Endorsements

Edward Chaka, Executive Director, Peoples Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP), Malawi
Anne Delorme, Humanité & Inclusion Canada
Alex Garcia, Gaucha Association of Parents and Friends of Deafblind People and People with Multiple Disabilities (AGAPASM), Brazil
Professor Paul Harpur OAM, The University of Queensland, Australia
Dr. Alex Munyambabazi, Amputee Self-help Network Uganda (ASNU)
Dr. Stacey Pizzino, The University of Queensland, Australia
Professor Gerard Quinn, Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
María Eugenia Villarreal, Human Security Network in Latin America and the Caribbean (SEHLAC)
Dr. Becky Alexis-Martin, pacifist academic, University of Bradford, UK
Maualaivao Maima Koro, Pacific Research Fellow, University of Adelaide, Australia
Yerdaulet Rakhmatulla and Aigerim Seitenova, Qazaq Nuclear Frontline Coalition (QNFC)
Dr. Magdalena E. Stawkowski, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, author of Atomic Collective: Radioactive Life in Kazakhstan.