The Wikimedia movement continues to expand its engagement with global institutions working in the public interest. In this spirit, I am pleased to share that I have been appointed as a Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs under the Wiki4Disarmament initiative. This appointment is a significant step in promoting collaboration between Wikimedia communities and the United Nations system.
A Wikimedian in Residence serves as a bridge between an institution and the Wikimedia community, helping to improve content, facilitate knowledge sharing, and promote open access practices. Through this residency, the aim is to improve the connection between the work of UNODA and Wikimedia projects, ensuring that information related to disarmament and international security is accessible, reliable, and available to a global audience.
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs plays an important role in supporting global peace and security by promoting nuclear non-proliferation, reducing conventional weapons, and supporting international disarmament frameworks. Through this residency, the goal is to connect this work with Wikimedia platforms, making critical knowledge on disarmament more accessible, reliable, and multilingual.
Why disarmament knowledge matters?
Disarmament refers to the reduction or elimination of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear arms. It has been a foundational concern of the United Nations since its inception, as reducing arms and building trust between states are essential for long-term peace.
However, despite its importance, coverage of disarmament topics across Wikimedia projects is uneven. Many important treaties, institutions, and individuals remain underrepresented, especially in non-English languages.
Wiki4Disarmament
Wiki4Disarmament is a collaborative initiative focused on improving public understanding of disarmament, arms control, and peacebuilding. At its core, the project recognizes an important issue: while disarmament is central to international peace and security, much of the available knowledge remains fragmented or difficult to access. The initiative aims to bridge this gap through Wikimedia projects by inter alia, documenting institutions, agreements, individuals, and movements involved in disarmament and arms control efforts.
Wiki4Disarmament covers a wide thematic scope, including weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, chemical, and biological arms, as well as conventional weapons like small arms and landmines. It also connects with broader intellectual and social dimensions of disarmament, including peace activism, antimilitarism, and emerging challenges such as cyber warfare and autonomous weapons systems. This wide scope reflects the evolving nature of global security and the need for accessible, up-to-date knowledge in these areas.
As a community initiative, Wiki4Disarmament invites participation from Wikimedians around the world. Contributors can engage by creating and improving articles, translating content into different languages, uploading media to Wikimedia Commons, and organizing events such as edit-a-thons and workshops, which are under the project’s scope. These collective efforts will improve publicly accessible knowledge, and also help build a more informed and engaged global community around issues of peace and security.
Looking ahead, this residency represents an opportunity to improve collaboration between the Wikimedia movement and the United Nations by embedding open knowledge practices within institutional frameworks. It is a step toward ensuring that critical topics like disarmament are accessible to anyone seeking to understand them.
To learn more about disarmament and get involved, explore the Wiki4Disarmament initiative on Meta-Wiki (https://w.wiki/JE7X) and visit the United Nations disarmament education platform at https://www.disarmamenteducation.org/. Contributions of all kinds, from editing and translation to research and outreach are welcome.
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