Events

Events

Event Date

December 13, 2021

Venue

Online

Debunking “collateral damage:” Airwars report launch on civilian harm

On Monday December 13th, Airwars held the launch event for a new report on civilian harm, bringing together British and European MPs with global experts from Airwars, PAX for Peace, and Humanity and Inclusion to discuss civilian protection in the context of the use of explosive weapons in urban environments.

Airwars’s new report, ‘Why did they bomb us?’ Urban civilian harm in Gaza, Syria, and Israel from explosive weapons use’ – which is published in Arabic, Hebrew, and English – employs Airwars’ standard methodology to examine how, when, and where civilians are killed in urban conflicts – including all local reports of civilians killed and injured in May 2021 by Israeli strikes in Gaza and civilians harmed in Israel by Palestinian rocket fire. We also examined locally reported civilian casualties from Israel’s eight-year long Syria campaign against Iranian-linked forces.

High civilian casualties in Gaza are symptomatic of the profoundly troubling global military trend in the use of wide area effect weapons in populated areas. The use of heavy explosive weapons in towns and cities frequently leads to damage and destruction of houses, infrastructure and services, and drives displacement. In February 2022 states have a unique opportunity to strengthen the protection of civilians, with negotiations to develop a political declaration to address the humanitarian consequences from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Event Date

December 2, 2021

Venue

UK Parliament

Sharing best practice across the Atlantic: a UK-US legislators’ dialogue on protecting civilians in armed conflict

To mark the group’s relaunch as the APPG on Drones and Modern Conflict the group held an event moderated by Dr. Larry Lewis with Congressman Jim McGovern and Gill Furniss MP to exchange experiences and expertise in a translantic dialogue, share best rpactises and lessons learned, and to identify what more needs to be done to enable greater civilian protection.

The UK and US are dealing with the challenge of calculating the impact of their own operations from a great distance, and the impact of their partners’ assistance.  These complexitis pose challenges to the protection of civilians, resulting in the sweeping destruction of civilian infrastructure and the devestating rise in civilian casualties by air opertions and through partnered ground operations.

Dmytro Chupryna offerred expert comment from Airwars’ perspective in the UK, and Annie Shiel, Senior Advisor at the Center for Civilians in Conflict offered perspective from the US.

Event Date

February 4, 2020

Venue

G2A Arena The Exhibition & Congress Centre

13th Europe-Ukraine Forum

Dmytro Chupryna, Airwars Deputy Director is presenting at 13th Europe-Ukraine Forum “New Possibilities. New Threats” on a special discussion panel  ‘Strength lays in numbers’ that aims at exploring the security dilemma in the CEE area. Airwars will contribute to a discussion on how a data-focused approach changes military narratives in understanding civilian harm,  broader protection of civilians, defence, and security-related issues.

Event Date

November 18, 2019

Venue

PRIO, Oslo, Norway

Yemen in Context: Past, Present and Future

Airwars research manager, Alex Hopkins, is speaking at a seminar looking at the current and varied dimensions of the conflict in Yemen, the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe. Alex will be joined on a panel by Jennifer Gibson of Repieve and Awssan Kamal from Oxfam. He will be speaking about Airwars monitoring of civilian harm in the long running US counter-terrorism campaign in Yemen, focusing on the dataset which AIrwars acquired from the award-winning Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Event Date

October 1, 2019

Venue

Austria Center Vienna

Vienna Conference on Protecting Civilians in Urban Warfare

Dmytro Chupryna, Airwars Deputy Director is attending the Vienna Conference on Protecting Civilians in Urban Warfare. As part of our membership of the International Network on Explosive Weapons – which seeks a ban of wide area effect  munition use in urban areas – Airwars will contribute to a discussion on the various forms of harm caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas; the legal context; and good examples of military practices in understanding and mitigating civilian harm.

Event Date

July 16, 2019

Venue

New America, Washington D.C.

Reporting on Civilian Casualties in the War Against ISIS

Airwars Director Chris Woods and report author Alexa O’Brien are presenting at the launch of the new Airwars report ‘News in Brief: US Media Coverage of Civilian Harm in the War Against ISIS’ in Washington DC. Authored by investigative journalist Alexa O’Brien, the report draws on new research and interviews with reporters at major US media outlets, providing editors with recommendations for improved coverage of civilian harm. The discussion is joined by Azmat Khan, co-author of The Uncounted, a New York Times Magazine investigation into civilian casualties in Iraq; by Peter Bergen, New America’s Vice President; and by Greg Jaffe, national security correspondent for the Washington Post.

Event Date

July 6, 2019

Venue

Amnesty International UK

Freedom Across Borders

Dmytro Chupryna, Airwars Deputy Director is speaking at a conference ‘Freedom Across Borders’, organised by Syria Solidarity UK with Amnesty International UK – with the aim of discussing how human rights activism on one conflict can inform and support work on another. Airwars will contribute to a discussion on military accountability, focusing on what can be done in the UK and globally about the issue of civilian harm; evidence gathering; and the cost of impunity in Syria and beyond.

Event Date

June 11, 2019

Venue

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Berlin

Security Policy Alternatives

Dmytro Chupryna, Airwars Deputy Director is attending a conference ‘Security Policy Alternatives’: Convening civil society to explore collaborative international engagement on security interventions & counter-terrorism’, organised by Saferworld and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Airwars will contribute to the discussion on the collaborative action by civil society to challenge securitised responses to crises and threats, and promote effective peace strategies to end violent conflicts.