Talking points on the explosive weapons political declaration ‘elements pa...

The government of Ireland is currently leading the coordination of a process to develop an international political declaration in 2020, through which states will make commitments to better protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. Following a first consultation with  states in Geneva in November 2019 to discuss the elements that it would be important to include in such a declaration, Ireland released an elements paper in January 2020 outlining the... Read more

Protecting civilians explosive weapons in populated areas: questions of IHL comp...

In the course of ongoing consultations on a political declaration to address the harm to civilians from the use of explosive weapons in cities, towns and other civilian populated areas, critical questions have been raised about the connections between multilateral political action on explosive weapons and the obligation to protect civilians under international humanitarian law (IHL). This background note prepared for the consultations addressed the questions: Is civilian harm caused by explosive weapons or by... Read more

Explosive weapons with wide area effects and risk to civilians

The government of Ireland is currently leading the coordination of a process to develop an international political declaration in 2020, through which states will make commitments to better protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. In conflicts all over the world – in countries such as Syria, Ukraine and Yemen – the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is a major cause of harm to civilians. Explosive weapons are a... Read more

Explosive weapons in populated areas: looking ahead to 2020

Laura Boillot This post was originally published in the Forum on the Arms Trade ‘Looking Ahead’ series here. After a decade of work building concern over the use of explosive weapons in towns, cities and other populated areas, an ambitious timeframe has now been set out for developing an international political declaration in the first half of 2020. The aim of the initiative is to develop a tool to tackle the high levels of civilian... Read more