The UN First Committee (DISEC) explained

The First Committee, usually called DISEC at Model UN conferences, is where the United Nations General Assembly discusses weapons, disarmament and threats to international peace. It is easy to misunderstand: it cannot order anyone to disarm, and it does not negotiate treaties. This guide explains what the real committee does, how it works, what its decisions mean, and how to prepare for it.

What the First Committee does

The UN describes it this way: "The First Committee deals with disarmament, global challenges and threats to peace that affect the international community and seeks out solutions to the challenges in the international security regime." It "considers all disarmament and international security matters within the scope of the Charter."

Its formal name, in the General Assembly's rules, is the "Disarmament and International Security Committee (First Committee)." "DISEC" is the Model UN shorthand; UN pages say "First Committee."

It is the first of the Assembly's six Main Committees. The others are the Second (Economic and Financial), Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Fourth (Special Political and Decolonization), Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) and Sixth (Legal). After the Assembly's general debate, agenda items are shared out among them, and each committee discusses its items and recommends draft resolutions to the full Assembly.

Where its powers come from, and their limits

The UN Charter's Article 11 says the General Assembly "may consider the general principles of co-operation in the maintenance of international peace and security, including the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments, and may make recommendations" to members or to the Security Council. Note the verb: recommendations.

Article 12 adds a limit. While the Security Council is dealing with a dispute or situation, the Assembly "shall not make any recommendation" on it "unless the Security Council so requests." So a DISEC resolution should not try to act on a crisis the Security Council is already handling.

Who sits on it

All 193 UN member states. Every Main Committee is, in the UN library's words, a committee "of the whole," and each member may send one representative to each. Each committee elects "a Chair, three Vice-Chairs and a Rapporteur," chosen on "equitable geographical distribution, experience and personal competence." For the 81st session, in 2026, the Chair is Lok Bahadur Thapa of Nepal.

How it works

The UN says the committee's sessions are "structured into three distinctive stages": a general debate, thematic discussions and action on drafts. In 2018, for example, the thematic discussions ran "according to seven clusters," and the last week, "Action on drafts," was for "finalizing and voting on resolutions." That session held 31 meetings between 4 October and 8 November. The committee meets during the Assembly's main session, which runs from September to December.

One feature is unusual. It is "the only Main Committee of the General Assembly entitled to verbatim records coverage," so its meetings are recorded word for word. Its formal meetings are also webcast. Like every Main Committee, its decisions follow the Assembly's committee rules: "Decisions of committees shall be made by a majority of the members present and voting."

The committee then "submits a separate report to the plenary on every agenda item," with the drafts it recommends, and the full Assembly votes on them. Many pass without a vote. In 2018, the committee sent 68 drafts to the Assembly, of which 26 were approved without a vote.

What its resolutions mean

General Assembly resolutions "are considered to be recommendations. They are not legally binding on the Member States," according to the UN's Model UN guide. "The only resolutions that have the potential to be legally binding are those adopted by the SC." A DISEC resolution can urge, call upon and recommend, but it cannot impose sanctions or order a country to disarm.

The rest of the disarmament machinery

The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs describes three bodies: "the General Assembly and its First Committee, the United Nations Disarmament Commission, and the Conference on Disarmament." They do different jobs:

• The First Committee debates and recommends.
• The UN Disarmament Commission, set up in 1978 as "a subsidiary organ of the Assembly" with all member states, is "a deliberative body" that meets for three weeks each spring.
• The Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, with "65 member States," is "a single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum," and "conducts its work by consensus." It and its predecessors negotiated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

So if your DISEC resolution wants a new treaty, the realistic ask is to recommend negotiations in the right forum, not to write the treaty in committee.

India in the First Committee

India's Ministry of External Affairs says "India tables 4 resolutions in the First Committee annually, of which two are adopted by consensus each year": "Measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction" and "Role of Science and Technology in the context of International Security and Disarmament." Its other two concern a convention on prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons and "Reducing Nuclear Danger." If you represent India, those four texts are the place to start.

How to prepare for DISEC

• Find your country's record. Look for its statements in the First Committee's general debate and how it voted on past resolutions on your topic.
• Know which forum does what. Recommend, call upon or urge; leave binding action to the Security Council and treaty-making to negotiating forums.
• Check whether the Security Council is involved. If it is dealing with the situation, Article 12 limits what the Assembly can say.
• Aim for wide support. Some real First Committee texts pass without a vote (26 of 68 in 2018). Wording that more countries can accept is often more realistic than the strongest wording.

What to do next

For the procedure you will use in committee, read MUN rules of procedure explained and how to write an MUN resolution. For the Council that can take binding action, see how the UN Security Council works, and for your first speech, how to give an MUN opening speech.

To practise negotiation in a summit setting, Model G20 is One Young India's simulation of the G20 summit for students, held as a three-day residential summit at FLAME University.