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	Explosive weapons in cities: Civilian devastation and suffering must stop by ICRC, UN News, Humanity & Inclusion   Sep. 2019   The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, issue a joint appeal.   Idlib and Tripoli are currently enduring untold suffering and destruction from a hail of bombs and shells, joining a long list of cities before them - including most recently Mosul, Aleppo, Raqqa, Taiz, Donetsk, Fallujah and Sana'a.   They rarely make the top headlines, but they should. War in cities cannot be back-page news. In fact, some 50 million people are currently suffering its impacts.   Alarmed at the devastating humanitarian consequences of urban warfare, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations today are jointly appealing to States and all parties to armed conflict to avoid the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area in populated areas.   As the world urbanizes, so does armed conflict. When cities are bombed and shelled - whether by airstrikes, rockets, artillery or improvised explosive devices - civilians overwhelmingly bear the brunt.   In fact, the large majority of casualties - over 90 per cent, according to one estimate - are civilians. The harrowing images from population centres in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine - to name but a few - show a pattern of grave civilian harm impossible to ignore, yet too often forgotten.   Parties to conflict should recognize that they cannot fight in populated areas in the way they would in open battlefields. They must recognize that using explosive weapons with wide area effects in cities, towns, and refugee camps places civilians at high risk of indiscriminate harm.   Armed conflict in cities kills and gravely wounds countless civilians, leaving many with life-long disabilities and psychological trauma.   Infrastructure necessary for the functioning of basic services - water, electricity, sanitation, health care - is damaged or destroyed. This triggers domino effects that exacerbate suffering.   In one of countless examples, last month in Aden, Yemen, at least 200,000 people were left without clean water after intense fighting.   And when water or electricity is disrupted because supply lines have been blown up, providing healthcare becomes extremely difficult or impossible.   Indeed, when cities are bombed and shelled, healthcare is also hard-hit: medical personnel are killed and injured, ambulances can''t reach the wounded, and hospitals are irreparably damaged.   For those who survive, life becomes unbearable and they are often forced to flee. This past summer, in two months alone, around 100,000 people were displaced due to heavy bombing and shelling in Tripoli.   Displaced persons are particularly vulnerable to risks to their health and lives, especially women and children. In Iraq, 1.5 million internally displaced across the country are unable to go back home. Those who do, struggle to rebuild their lives against all odds; their homes have been destroyed, essential service networks have collapsed, and the threat of explosive remnants of war is everywhere.   The massive destruction caused by armed conflicts in cities can set development indexes back by years and even decades: for example, after the first four years of the armed conflict in Yemen, human development indicators dropped to their index of 20 years ago. This is a major setback to the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals.   Progress gained over decades can be quickly reversed as once lively and prospering population centres turn into ghost towns.   This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, universally accepted treaties which provide the protective power of international humanitarian law (IHL) when its rules are scrupulously respected. IHL absolutely prohibits directing attacks against civilians or civilian objects, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, indiscriminate weapons, and using civilians as human shields. It requires conflict parties to take steps to minimize incidental civilian harm.   Respect for these rules is all the more critical when armed conflict is waged in populated environments - where military targets and civilians and civilian structures are comingled, and civilians are at great risk of harm.   The inherent vulnerability of civilians in populated areas make it imperative for States to reassess and adapt their choice of weapons and tactics to avoid civilian harm, and to adequately prepare, train and equip their armed forces for this purpose.   States must also exercise influence over their partners and other supported conflict parties to this end. And it is imperative that the protection of civilians is made a strategic priority in the planning and conduct of military operations. Some steps are being taken in this direction, but much more needs to be done, and soon.   A number of initiatives for strengthening civilian protection in urban armed conflict are under way. As a first step, we support the efforts of States to develop a political declaration, as well as appropriate limitations, common standards and operational policies in conformity with IHL relating to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.   We further urge States and other stakeholders to strengthen the collection of data on civilian casualties and to establish mechanisms to mitigate and investigate harm to civilians, ensure accountability and draw lessons for future operations.   We encourage States to identify and share good practices for mitigating the risk of civilian harm in urban armed conflict, including restrictions and limitations on the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas, and we undertake to support such good practice exchanges.   We call on all parties to armed conflicts to employ strategies and tactics that take combat outside populated areas to try to reduce urban fighting altogether, and we urge parties to allow civilians to leave besieged areas.   And we appeal to States to adopt policies and practices that will enhance the protection of civilians when warfare takes place in populated areas, including policies and practices to avoid the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, due to the significant likelihood of indiscriminate effects. This will help to mitigate the impact of war on cities and to reduce suffering.   http://www.icrc.org/en/document/explosive-weapons-cities-civilian-devastation-and-suffering-must-stop http://reliefweb.int/report/world/international-humanitarian-law-and-challenges-contemporary-armed-conflicts-recommitting http://www.icrc.org/en/document/ihl-displacement   * Red Cross I saw my city die: http://redcross.michiko.design/index.html   # This report - The Waiting List: Addressing the immediate and long-term needs of victims of explosive weapons in Syria, by Disability International - Humanity & Inclusion looks at the challenges linked to the use of explosive weapons in the Syrian context for the provision of adequate immediate assistance and to plan for mid to long-term assistance to the victims of explosive violence, to ensure their full recovery and inclusion into society. It is based on data and testimonies collected from humanitarian agencies, actors and patients across all areas of control in Syria.   The ongoing Syrian conflict has had a devastating impact on the civilian population with some reports citing between 500,000 and 1 million people killed, and up to 1.5 people injured.   * Access the report: The Waiting List: Addressing the immediate and long-term needs of victims of explosive weapons in Syria (52pp): http://bit.ly/36lP8Ux   Dec. 2017   220,000 children threatened by mines and other explosive weapons in eastern Ukraine - UNICEF   Eastern Ukraine is now one of the most mine-contaminated places on earth, endangering 220,000 children who live, play and go to and from school in areas littered with landmines, unexploded ordnance and other deadly explosive remnants of war, UNICEF warned today.   "It is unacceptable that places where children could safely play less than four years ago are now riddled with deadly explosives," said UNICEF Ukraine Representative Giovanna Barberis. "All parties to the conflict must immediately end the use of these gruesome weapons that have contaminated communities and put children in constant danger of injury and death."   Available data from January to November this year show on average one conflict-related child casualty a week along eastern Ukraine's contact line - a 500 kilometre strip of land that divides government and non-government controlled areas and where fighting is most severe.   Landmines, explosive remnants of war (ERW) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) were the leading cause of these child casualties, accounting for approximately two-thirds of all recorded injuries and deaths during the period. Leaving many children with lifelong disabilities.   In most cases, the child casualties occurred when children picked up explosives such as hand grenades and fuses. One child, a 14-year-old boy named Aleksey, recently told UNICEF, "I picked it up and I think I pressed something, and it just exploded. There was a lot of blood and the fingers were hanging. I was so scared that I started shaking. I almost collapsed."   Landmines and other explosive weapons also put vital infrastructure such as water, electricity and gas facilities at risk. Earlier this month, a UXO was found at the Donetsk Filter Station which provides water to nearly 350,000 people. Demining groups have been called to the filter station 13 times this year.   UNICEF and partners have reached more than half a million children in eastern Ukraine with Mine Risk Education sessions since 2015. These sessions teach children how to protect themselves from mines, UXO and ERW. UNICEF has also provided psychosocial support to 270,000 children affected by the ongoing conflict.   In 2017, only 46 per cent of UNICEF's emergency appeal to support children and their families in eastern Ukraine was funded. Child protection activities including mine risk education and providing psychosocial support for children had an even larger funding gap of 73 per cent.   UNICEF is calling for all sides of the conflict to recommit to the ceasefire signed in Minsk and allow mine clearance activities and recovery efforts to begin.   Dec. 2017   ICRC President's address to the Meeting of States Parties, Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.   Twenty years ago anti-personnel mines were a regular and lethal feature of armed conflicts across the world. Combatant or civilian: these weapons struck indiscriminately.   At that time a staggering 20,000 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed or mutilated by anti-personnel mines every year.   Amid a swell of global condemnation, one of my predecessors was incensed by the impact of these weapons, which he described as 'abominable and... a destructive technology out of control'.   He called on the international community to uphold a 'moral, political and legal obligation and to put an end to the mass destruction in slow motion caused by mines'.   The global crisis of human suffering required a global solution: the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It was the result of a remarkable partnership between States, civil society and international organisations, including the ICRC and the broader International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. And importantly, the treaty would not have been possible without the determined advocacy of landmine survivors themselves.   The treaty brought unprecedented attention to the plight of the people and communities affected by landmines and other unexploded ordnance. And it was extraordinary in its approach:   It was the first time that a weapon in widespread use had been prohibited due to its appalling human, economic and social costs;   It was the first treaty of international humanitarian law to prohibit not only the use of a weapon, but also its production, stockpiling and transfer... and to require its elimination; and - It also demanded that States provide assistance for victims, and mobilize resources to clear contaminated land.   And let us not forget that this progress was possible also, because of the support of many members of armed forces who understood early on the political and moral unacceptability of a continued use of these weapons.   Today, the goal of a world-free of antipersonnel mines is within reach. Broad adherence to the treaty has seen: The use of anti-personnel mines diminish; More than 53 million anti-personnel mines destroyed; Thousands of square kilometres of mined lands cleared; and - The legal trade virtually disappear. And as a result, countless numbers of lives have been saved.   However, on this anniversary, I fear that we have reached a dangerous crossroads.   Landmine victims may not be on the front pages of the newspapers as they were in the 1980s and 1990s but today mine casualties are rising sharply in some countries.   Anti-personnel mines, in particular improvised mines, are taking a heavy toll on civilians in places including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Shockingly children account for 42% of all civilian casualties.   Today, 35 States remain outside of the Convention, and many of these have huge stockpiles, totalling an estimated 45 million units. I do not wish to think of the casualties if these weapons were ever used.   I encourage all States, who are not yet part of the Convention, to continuously reassess the military need for anti-personnel mines in light of their severe human costs. Those who have joined in the last 20 years wait impatiently for the Mine Ban Convention to become truly global treaty.   The ICRC sees all too often in our hospitals and rehabilitation centres the injuries caused by mine blasts. We work to fit victims of explosions with prostheses for missing limbs and to help them live a full life.   We help where we can, but frankly no one should have to have to suffer the lifelong trauma, pain, social and economic disadvantage that mine victims face. And we engage and will continue to do so in Mine Risk Education to prevent accidents and to bring the number of victims down even before all the mines are cleared.   In 2014, States Parties expressed a determination to meet key goals of the Convention by 2025, that is, in just seven short years. There must be greater urgency and determination to ensure that these goals become a reality. Focused effort must be directed to make certain that by 2025:   All stockpiles still held by States Parties are destroyed; Contaminated land is cleared within the Convention's deadlines and the 2025 commitments; and - Victims can access the care, rehabilitation and socio-economic services they need to participate in their societies on an equal basis to others.   Of critical importance is the commitment of funds to achieve these actions. I urge all State Parties able to do so to provide resources and exert influence where necessary. By 2025 the ICRC is advocating that affected States Parties are landmine free and with no new victims on their territories.   No affected State Party should be left behind in this process. The international community must again use its collective determination, harness this remarkable partnership to overcome these challenges. As the 2025 deadline approaches, there is not a moment to waste.   The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is a shining example of how the international community can collectively respond to widespread suffering caused by the use of indiscriminate weapons.   Since its adoption, new treaties have followed to protect civilians from explosive remnants of war and to prohibit cluster munitions. Short of developing new law, ensuring respect for existing IHL rules is critical to protect civilians from the indiscriminate effects of weapons.   In conflicts around the world the ICRC sees what happens when weapons are used without regard for civilian life, when the internationally agreed constraints of distinction, proportionality and precaution are disregarded.   As we are witnessing in the ongoing armed conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Ukraine for example, the use of heavy explosive weapons in densely populated areas is having disastrous consequences for civilians.   For example when a city is shelled the consequences are not limited to death, physical injury, but also include damage to critical infrastructure such as water and electrical facilities, hospitals and health services.   Given the enormous costs for civilians, the ICRC calls on all parties to avoid the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effect in populated areas, due to the significant likelihood of indiscriminate effects.   All States should be in a position to apply this as a matter of good practice, to ensure better protection for civilians in urban warfare.   Today I call on the international community to harness the goodwill and common action that led to the adoption of the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention. I call on you to maintain vigilance against all weapons that cruelly and indifferently attack the innocent and for humanitarian law and the wisdom of humanity to prevail.   http://bit.ly/2BvPybW http://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/protected-persons/civilians http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/home.aspx   STOP Bombing Civilians (Handicap International - Humanity & Inclusion)   During recent armed conflicts, explosive weapons have been used on a massive scale, killing and injuring thousands of civilians. When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, a shocking 92% of casualties are civilians.   In 2016, over 45,000 people were killed or injured by explosive weapons. Civilians in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan have been particularly badly affected.   The number of civilians killed has nearly doubled since 2011. Over 1.5 million Syrians are now living with permanent war-related disabilities. Humanity & Inclusion is working to build a massive movement to Stop Bombing Civilians.   http://hi-canada.org/en/news/a-frightening-increase-in-the-number-of-victims-of-explosive-weapons http://humanity-inclusion.org.uk/en/campaign/stop-bombing-civilians http://www.hi-us.org/conventional_weapons http://www.inew.org/news/stop-bombing-towns-and-cities-international-campaign-conference-on-the-use-of-explosive-weapons-in-populated-areas   * Armed Violence and Disability: The Untold Story (2012)   This 64 page report details the conclusions of a one year study into the relationship between armed violence and disability. The study was based on data collected from police forces and hospitals, and a survey conducted between May 2011 and April 2012 in four towns or provinces of countries particularly affected by this scourge: Medellin, Colombia; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Karamoja, Uganda; and Peshawar, Pakistan. View the report here: http://bit.ly/2If9PYY Visit the related web page
	States must protect human rights defenders in conflict and post-conflict situations by Michelle Bachelet, Michel Forst UN Office for Human Rights   Justice for past crimes can build a shared future, writes Michelle Bachelet - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   We know that lasting peace is interlinked with justice, development and respect for human rights. We know that peace does not automatically break out when weapons fall silent and atrocity crimes cease. To be able to rebuild lives 'without fear of recurrence' and for society to move forward, suffering needs to be acknowledged; confidence in State institutions restored; and justice done.   Demands for justice can be denied, but they will not disappear. In Sudan, the recent popular overthrow of the regime was driven, in large part, by demands for justice, across society, built up over decades of impunity for human rights violations.   Across the world, mass protests have once again brought home the power of popular demands for equality, social justice, gender justice, climate justice and fundamental rights.   Transitional justice processes have repeatedly shown they can help to address grievances and divisions. I have seen this first-hand.   My own experience in Chile convinced me that transitional justice processes that are context-specific nationally owned and focused on the needs and informed choices of victims can connect, empower and transform societies, and thereby contribute to lasting and just peace. The multiple post-conflict and post-authoritarian situations I have witnessed have strengthened that conviction.   Truth-seeking initiatives not only enable victims to recount their experiences; they also open new spaces within which victims and perpetrators can reestablish the connection. They facilitate the recognition and accommodation of multiple narratives about what has occurred, and the formulation of more searching recommendations for redress and reform.   Over the past 30 years, various truth commissions in the Americas and elsewhere have greatly contributed to transitional justice processes. Guatemala stands out for its landmark final report of the truth commission 'Memoria del Silencio' (1999).   The report provided an authoritative record of human rights violations during the conflict, giving a voice to the victims and analyzing the dynamics underlying 36 years of conflict. It was instrumental in advancing victims rights, including in several high-profile judicial cases on conflict-related sexual violence and other crimes, which have resulted in orders for victim-centered and transformative reparations. Sadly, much of this progress is now at risk.   Such processes are often deeply empowering for victims, in particular women, indigenous communities and minorities that have been marginalized. This is vital to healing wounds and binding societies together.   I have just returned from a mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the recent UN-supported consultations in the Kasai region enabled many victims to express their views on truth, reconciliation, reparations, and the prevention of future conflict.   These consultations laid the groundwork for the establishment of a provincial Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. This locally driven project -- like others supported by the Peacebuilding Fund -- establish important links between transitional justice processes, the root causes of conflict and socio-economic reintegration.   While I was in Ituri, I was struck by the strong desire expressed by both the Hema and Lendu communities for transitional justice processes, and their emphasis on justice as the path to peace and reconciliation. The current conflict between the Lendu and Hema was preceded by a previous cycle of violence in 2003, which did not give rise to a concerted effort to promote accountability.   I am convinced this failure to sustain justice processes has been a factor in the revival of violence today. Equally, inability to address the violence of today could place the future at serious risk of renewed violations and abuses. We have learned these lessons, and we know how to address them. The real question is whether there is the collective will to do so.   In many countries, my Office has witnessed the transformative power of transitional justice, particularly their role in shaping guarantees of non-repetition. These comprise a package of recommended measures to prevent the recurrence of conflict and human rights abuses.   They are grounded in deep analysis of the root causes and escalating manifestations of conflict and atrocity crimes. UN fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry have repeatedly played a vital role in bringing facts to light, providing national authorities and the international community with an honest mapping of often complex and long-lasting issues. The contribution of such recent mechanisms in relation to Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, for example, cannot be overstated.   For a society to truly succeed in establishing a transition to sustainable peace, issues such as systemic discrimination and exclusion, institutional deficiencies, unfair power structures, inequalities and structural impunity must be identified, acknowledged and addressed. Guarantees of non-recurrence will therefore often relate to institution building.   It is also essential to ensure the broadest possible participation of civil society organizations in decision-making. In recognition of this value, many transitional justice recommendations emphasize the empowerment of civil society, history education, trauma counselling and memorialization initiatives.   In virtually every conflict or post-conflict situation, it is particularly crucial for military and police forces - and more broadly, all institutions of government - to regain the confidence of traumatised and abused communities.   Fair, even-handed and accountable use of public power is central to rebuilding shattered trust in law enforcement. To this end, vetting processes and security sector reforms should be given high priority, noting that a disciplined, professional and principled force is in also the interests of the security forces and government itself.   Creating trust and understanding between former enemies, and crafting a path towards sustainable peace and reconciliation, will always be a difficult challenge. Transitional justice, we know, cannot be imported or imposed from outside. Locally-led and locally-appropriate permutations of transitional justice have the best chances of success. Without humility and modesty, the risks of failure are real.   The international community has a key roles in assisting transitional States in these processes, by sharing experiences, mandating international support, and encouraging the implementation of genuinely comprehensive approaches.   Transitional justice should not be seen as an alternative to criminal accountability for perpetrators of atrocity crimes. But that criminal accountability 'which is vital' should be accompanied by a broad range of complementary measures to support truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, which help to break cycles of violence.   There is clearly no single way to get the mix of these measures precisely right. But there is a way to get it wrong and that is to consider that victims rightful demands for justice are an inconvenient distraction that can be papered over or indefinitely delayed.   Failure to engage in such processes will not resolve conflicts: it will fuel recurrence. I encourage all states to acknowledge and make full use of the transformative impact of transitional justice in consideration of matters of international peace and security.   Mar. 2020   States must protect human rights defenders in conflict and post-conflict situations says Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders   Human rights defenders working in conflict and post-conflict situations should enjoy greater recognition, protection and support for their work, said a UN expert in his latest report presented to the Human Rights Council.   'Defenders in conflict settings are courageous men and women who provide emergency relief, ensure access to civilians and document civilian casualties and violations of international law', said Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.   'In post-conflict settings, they may help claiming back the homes of displaced people and challenge impunity. Some are children calling for peace and equal access to education'.   In his report, the UN expert called on States and non-State actors to implement and strengthen protection mechanisms for defenders in conflict and post-conflict situations.   'In too many cases their contributions go unnoticed, while they face multiple threats to their safety due to conflict related insecurity or the very nature of their work, for example when they denounce violations committed by warring parties. Women defenders are particularly exposed to gender based violence, including sexual violence', Forst said.   According to his report, defenders in conflict and post-conflict situation face serious restrictions on their freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.   Their activities are restricted in the name of national security, public order and counter-terrorism; or through obstacles such as NGO registration, access to funding, suspension of online communications and cyber-attacks. Journalist and NGO staff members face arrest and criminal charges for denouncing human rights violations.   'More countries have recently experienced violent conflict than at any point in the last thirty years. Human rights defenders operating in these situations of intense pressure are too often solely responsible for their own protection', the UN expert said.   'Specific legislation, guidelines and mechanisms to protect them should therefore be systemically implemented in order to safeguard their important role in promoting peace, human rights, security and justice'. http://bit.ly/3lyQNMW Visit the related web page
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