Jacqulyn Kantack, Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative
Following a busy season of disarmament meetings at the end of 2023, the beginning of 2024 has been relatively quiet on the diplomatic front. Nevertheless, as ongoing armed conflicts, including in Gaza and Ukraine, inflict significant civilian casualties, proponents of humanitarian disarmament have sought to advance civilian protection through universalizing treaties, implementing instruments, and documenting harm. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has a new state party, and states met in Austria and Togo to discuss implementation and universalization of the explosive weapons political declaration. Several nongovernmental organizations have released new reports, highlighting the grave harm from certain means and methods of war as well as the need for states to continue building and enforcing disarmament norms.
In case you missed it:
- On December 15, 2023, Peru announced the completion of its stockpile of cluster munitions. All 112 states parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions have now fulfilled their stockpile destruction obligations.
- On January 8, 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) released its annual Armed Violence Monitor, which found a 122 percent rise in global civilian fatalities from explosive weapons compared to 2022. When explosive weapons were used in populated areas, AOAV reported, 90 percent of the casualties were civilians. AOAV attributed about 37 percent of civilian casualties from explosive weapons globally to the war in Gaza (amounting to 12,551 civilian casualties). AOAV’s data comes from “reputable English language media sources on explosive violence incidents.”
- São Tomé and Príncipe became the first new state party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2024, depositing its instrument of ratification on January 15. São Tomé and Príncipe’s ratification raises the number of TPNW states parties to 70.
- The Conflict and Environment Observatory and the Zoï Environment Network co-published in January a briefing on the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on biodiversity and ecologically important areas. The report identifies both direct and indirect harm from a range of sources, including landmines, explosive ordnance, and explosive weapons, and identifies immediate and future needs to prioritize for recovery. The briefing is the seventh in a series about the environmental impacts of this conflict.
- The Forum on the Arms Trade also published this month a “Looking Ahead 2024 Blog Series,” which provides expert analysis on arms concerns heading into the new year. Articles address, among other topics, implementation of the explosive weapons political declaration, predictions for explosive weapons’ impacts in 2024, and a range of arms trade-related issues.
- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists released their annual update to the Doomsday Clock on January 23. The Bulletin’s board kept the clock at 90 seconds to midnight due to the ongoing risk of nuclear weapons use by Russia in the Ukraine war, as well as the threats posed by nuclear program spending by China, Russia, and the United States.
- On January 24-25, Austria hosted the Vienna Military Workshop on the Implementation of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas. The 45 signatory states and one observer state that participated discussed military policies and practices relevant to implementation of the declaration. The workshop featured remarks from Marwa Almbaed, who shared her experiences of the devastation caused by explosive weapons in populated areas in Syria.
- On January 30-31, West African states met in Togo for a Regional Workshop on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences of the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas.
- On February 7, the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs issued a call for submissions to the UN secretary-general on how to address the range of concerns raised by lethal autonomous weapons systems. The call is in response to a UN General Assembly resolution, adopted December 22, 2023, that recognizes those concerns and the urgent need to address them and requested the secretary-general report back to the General Assembly on the views of states and other stakeholders in 2024. The resolution passed by a vote of 152 states in favor and 4 against, with 11 abstentions.
- Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds, and SITU Research released on February 8 the results of an in-depth investigation that documented the destruction of Mariupol, Ukraine in the wake of Russian attacks. A 224-page report entitled, “Our City Was Gone”: Russia’s Devastation of Mariupol, Ukraine, along with a multi-media feature and video, called for the investigation and appropriate prosecution of war crimes that led to thousands of civilian casualties. The investigation found widespread use of the explosive weapons with wide area effects. Human Rights Watch said: “Mariupol stands as a testament to the cruel destruction and suffering caused by explosive weapons in cities and towns across the world.”
Over the next month, the diplomatic calendar starts to pick up again. States parties to the Arms Trade Treaty will hold working group meetings in Geneva for the Tenth Conference of States Parties from February 20-23. Then, states parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons will convene in Geneva for the Group of Governmental Experts Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems from March 4-8.