Since 2007, the independent, nongovernmental Arms Control Association has nominated individuals and institutions that have, in the previous 12 months, advanced effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament solutions and raised awareness of the threats posed by mass casualty weapons.
In a field that is often focused on grave threats and negative developments, the Arms Control Person(s) of the Year contest aims to highlight several positive initiatives—some at the grassroots level, some on the international scale—designed to advance disarmament, nuclear security, and international peace, security, and justice.
Voting will take place between Dec. 13, 2024, and Jan. 13, 2025. You can cast your vote below:
The 2024 nominees are:
- The UN Delegations of Ireland and New Zealand and 48 co-sponsoring states for successfully advancing United Nations First Committee resolution, L.39, which mandates an updated, independent scientific on study on nuclear war effects. The resolution, which still must be approved by the UN General Assembly, will establish an independent panel of scientific experts tasked with reviewing and commissioning relevant studies and publishing a comprehensive report that includes future research needs relating to the impacts of nuclear war.
- The Opinion Editors at The New York Times for their ground-breaking “At the Brink” series, which has helped to raise greater public awareness about the devastating impacts, massive costs, and growing dangers posed by nuclear weapons. The special series of interactive essays, which was launched in March 2024, are reported and written by William J. Hennigan and overseen by opinion page editor Kathleen Kingsbury.
- Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and members of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group for their leadership to challenge the rationale for and the exploding cost of the Sentinel ICBM program. In his role on the House Armed Services Committee and as co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, Garamendi took the Secretary of Defense to task for Sentinel cost overruns and called for more effective congressional oversight of the increasingly costly program. In August remarks at the U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium, he urged a fundamental reexamination of the program.
- Filmmakers of new nuclear-age documentaries that highlight the devastating and long term human and environmental health effects of U.S. and Soviet Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing: First We Bombed New Mexico, Silent Fallout, and I Want to Live On: the Untold Stories of the Polygon. For more information on the impact of these and other new films, see this essay published in Arms Control Today.
- Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg for convening the Vienna Conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems and for the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s leadership to advance a United Nations General Assembly resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems that highlights the urgent need to open negotiations on a new treaty to ban them. The resolution which (79/L.77) won the support of 166 countries, creates a new UN forum to discuss the serious challenges and concerns raised by weapons systems that select and apply force to targets based on sensor processing rather than human input.
- The governments of the United States, Argentina, and Japan for taking action through the UN to reinforce global support for the 1967 Outer Space Treaty via resolution 79/L.7, “Weapons of mass destruction in outer space.” The resolution that won the support of 167 states follows reports that Russia is pursuing a nuclear-armed space object. It reaffirms the obligations of the Outer Space Treaty (OST), which prohibits the placement of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in outer space.
- The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Technical Secretariat for its activities in the context of the Technical Assistance Visit(s) to Ukraine that investigated allegations that riot control agents have been used in Ukraine “as a weapon of warfare” against soldiers on the battlefield. The use of chemical agents in this manner is strictly prohibited under Article I of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
- Savannah River Site Watch, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and The South Carolina Environmental Law Project for filing a National Environmental Policy Act lawsuit challenging the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plan to produce 80 plutonium cores for nuclear weapons per year. A U.S. district court ruled that NNSA violated the law by not properly considering alternatives.
- Fumio Kishida, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa of Japan, for their leadership in nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, including hosting a rare UNSC session focused on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament issues in March, which produced a Friends of the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) initiative, and for sending 50 young people to Hiroshima as part of their Youth Leader Fund for a World Without Nuclear Weapons program in August.
- Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and others for pressing the Biden administration to comply with longstanding U.S. laws and its own policies, which require suspension or limitation of U.S. arms transfers to states, including Israel, that fail to allow humanitarian assistance to civilians in conflict or that engage in acts that violate international humanitarian law. Sanders and other lawmakers argued that Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza clearly violates these standards, which require a suspension of offensive military assistance. They advanced resolutions of disapproval to block continued U.S. arms transfers to Israel, which were defeated by the Senate on Nov. 20. Under pressure from Sen. Van Hollen and others, the administration issued a new national security memorandum (NSM-20) requiring regular reporting from states receiving U.S. military assistance to ensure they meet these legal standards. However, in December, Biden signaled he will not restrict U.S. arms transfers to Israel despite Israel’s failure to permit increased deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza as top U.S. officials had demanded.
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