Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative
While ongoing armed conflict and threats to existing treaties and their norms made 2024 a challenging year, humanitarian disarmament proponents still have much to be proud of. November and December exemplify this trend. The United States (US) announced it would transfer antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine, a move that contravened a widely accepted international norm as well as US policy. Additionally, obstacles to multilateralism have blocked progress in certain forums, notably the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Undaunted, however, states and civil society alike stood up to these threats, vehemently condemning US mine transfers, reinforcing the Mine Ban Treaty’s norms, and ensuring the adoption of progressive United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolutions on nuclear weapons and autonomous weapons systems. The year culminated with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Japanese organization of nuclear weapons survivors, a decision that recognized the determination and resiliency of the hibakusha as well as the power of a humanitarian approach to disarmament.
In case you missed it:
- From October 7 to November 8, the 79th session of the UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security convened in New York, passing several significant resolutions despite strong opposition from militarized and nuclear-armed states. The resolutions later adopted by the General Assembly include one that establish a group of 21 scientific experts tasked with studying the effects of nuclear war and another that decided to hold a future meeting addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons.
- On November 13–15, the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons held their annual meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Though the first day of the meeting was hampered by Russia’s unwillingness to confirm the rules of procedure unless civil society’s participation was significantly limited, states parties still managed to engage in substantive informal debate regarding such topics as autonomous weapons systems and the need for gender inclusivity in future CCW discussions. The final report, however, was largely procedural in nature. Read overviews of the meeting written by Reaching Critical Will here and the Stop Killer Robots campaign here.
- States and civil society also raised concerns about the humanitarian consequences of incendiary weapons at the CCW meeting. For example, ten states made a joint statement and issued a working paper highlighting the “excruciating burns,” “profound psychological trauma,” and long-lasting suffering inflicted by the weapons. Those states and others called for dedicated discussions of CCW Protocol III, which governs incendiary weapons, although consensus was not reached on their proposals. On November 7, Human Rights Watch released its Beyond Burning report, which documented recent use of incendiary weapons and the broad range of physical, psychological, socioeconomic, and environmental harm they cause.
- On November 18, the Washington Post reported that US President Biden approved a transfer of antipersonnel mines to Ukraine—a state party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty—and a second transfer was announced on December 2. This development comes despite the United States not having exported antipersonnel landmines since 1992. The transfers also directly violated President Biden’s policy, promulgated in 2022, not to assist anyone with activities prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty outside of the Korean Peninsula. Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups condemned the transfers and issued a question-and-answer document explaining them here.
- On November 20, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) released the 26th annual Landmine Monitor report. Landmine Monitor 2024 documented, from mid-2023 to October 2024, the use of antipersonnel mines by Myanmar, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, as well as by non-state armed groups in twelve countries. It additionally recorded at least 5,757 casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2023 alone. Although ninety-four states parties to the Mine Ban Treaty have destroyed their stockpiles, Ukraine and Greece have missed their deadlines in direct violation of Article 4. Though global financial support for mine action surpassed US$1 billion for the first time, several states parties continue to lack sufficient funding to achieve their Article 5 clearance obligations. Read more on Landmine Monitor 2024’s major findings here, and read the full report here.
- On November 25–29, the Fifth Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty (also known as the Siem Reap Summit on a Mine-Free World) was held in Siem Reap, Cambodia. States parties expressed serious concerns about the US transfers of antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine, and the Siem Reap-Angkor Declaration on a Mine-Free World reasserts the commitment of states parties “never to use, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines under any circumstances.”
- On December 2, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution addressing the issue of lethal autonomous weapons systems, sometimes referred to as killer robots. The resolution, approved by a majority of 166 states, calls for a “comprehensive and inclusive approach” which considers “legal, technological, ethical, humanitarian and security perspectives, in order to safeguard international peace and security.” The resolution also mandates two days of informal talks on the subject of autonomous weapons systems at the UN in New York in 2025. Read an analysis of the significance of the General Assembly resolution by Elizabeth Minor of Article 36 on Humanitarian Disarmament’s website here.
- On December 2-3, the Mila–Quebec AI Institute in Montréal hosted a workshop on the Harms and Risks of AI in the Military. The workshop brought AI researchers and military AI regulators together to discuss concerns about the risks that the use of AI technologies for military purposes pose to human rights and global security. Recordings of the workshop’s sessions will be made available soon here.
- On December 5, the Human Rights Programme at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) released its comments responding to the call of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) for input on a report on civilian acquisition, possession, and use of firearms. OHCHR plans to present this report, requested by the Human Rights Council, to the council at its 59th session in June 2025.
- On December 10, Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of nuclear weapons, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Committee lauded the organization for “demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The honor also implicitly recognized the value of the humanitarian approach to disarmament. Read the report of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) here, and watch Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Lecture, delivered by activist and hibakusha Terumi Tanaka, here.
- On December 18, the Conflict and Environment Observatory published a commentary assessing the role that armed conflict issues played in the recent Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Author Ellie Kinney wrote: “In many ways, peace and security had never enjoyed a higher profile than they did at COP29 in Baku and yet developed countries failed fragile and conflict-affected states.”
- The WILPF and the Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control (GENSAC) published a joint report in December entitled Advancing Gender and Inclusivity in Small Arms Control: Key Takeaways from RevCon4. This report examines the outcome document from the June 2024 Fourth Review Conference for the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, specifically focusing on those provisions of the outcome document which discuss the relationship between gender and small arms.
At least some of the challenges faced in 2024 will spill into 2025, but so will the opportunities for further progress and collaboration. The Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will convene in New York from March 3–7. Diplomats and campaigners will also prepare for other scheduled conferences.
In addition to annual meetings of states parties, they can look forward to the UN General Assembly-mandated autonomous weapons systems meeting in New York in May, as well as the next meeting of signatories to the political declaration on explosive weapons in populated areas in Costa Rica in November.
Finally, humanitarian disarmament advocates must remain nimble to react to unexpected developments—positive or negative, in their area of expertise or that of a fellow campaign—in order to maximize opportunities to advance civilian protection.
This post expresses the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic or Harvard University.