UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security

The United Nations General Assembly First Committee (also known as the Disarmament and International Security Committee or DISEC or C1) is one of six main committees at the General Assembly of the United Nations. It deals with disarmament and international security matters.

The First Committee meets every year in October for a 4–5 week session, after the General Assembly General Debate. All 193 member states of the UN can attend. It is the only Main Committee of the General Assembly entitled to verbatim records.

The General Assembly's work on disarmament is conducted through one of its main committees, the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. The First Committee provides space for each state to discuss their positions on disarmament-related matters, and to work together to come up with compromises or to propose language or tools to better understand and approach the issues. It offers the opportunity for states to build consensus on the issues, to reach common understandings and principles and to agree on norms of behavior. Thus rather than ensuring “security” through the size of their arsenals, governments can discuss how to best arrive at cooperative security arrangements that minimize spending on weapons, reduce arms production, trade, and stockpiles, and increase global security.