{"id":82611,"date":"2022-04-07T09:15:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T09:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/?post_type=news_and_analysis&#038;p=82611"},"modified":"2022-04-07T09:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T09:17:20","slug":"five-takeaways-from-the-first-day-of-ewipa-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"news_and_analysis","link":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/news\/five-takeaways-from-the-first-day-of-ewipa-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Five takeaways from the first day of EWIPA negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The shadow of the Ukraine conflict loomed large over the first day of the informal UN-backed consultations on a political declaration on restricting the use of wide area effect explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA), currently underway in Geneva.<\/p>\n<p>Delegates from more than 65 nations have gathered to fine tune the language of the political declaration, along with more than 15 civil society organisations including Airwars. The chairperson, Michael Gaffey of Ireland, opened the proceedings by calling for a minute of silence for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Nujeen Mustafa, who had fled the war in Aleppo, then powerfully testified via a video message, saying, \u201cthroughout history, diplomats have discussed world problems while sitting at a table with a nice coffee. People trapped in a conflict zone cannot do that. Today, you have the possibility to change a terrible situation and protect civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nujeen Mustafa, a Syrian who fled Aleppo after it was largely destroyed by explosive weapons, addresses delegates:<br \/>\u201cWhile you\u2019ve been negotiating whether a declaration should be made, 11,076 people have fallen victim to these weapons&quot; she says<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DI9vYhD6nq\">https:\/\/t.co\/DI9vYhD6nq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Airwars (@airwars) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/airwars\/status\/1511627307810762758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While there are two days of discussion left before proceedings close on Friday evening, many of the most pressing issues arose in proceedings on Wednesday &#8211; particularly as states laid out their own positions during opening remarks. Here are five key themes from the first day of EWIPA negotiations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. The conflict in Ukraine adds a sense of urgency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first statement was made by the Ukrainian delegate, who noted that &#8220;our cities and towns have been turned into dead ash because of the use of these explosive weapons&#8221; &#8211; highlighting a new sense of urgency and relevance which the negotiations have taken on.<\/p>\n<p>Every delegate who spoke made reference to the Ukraine conflict, with many emphasising that the violent and horrific violence against Ukrainian civilians must move states to act more effectively. The French delegate noted that Russia did not attend the proceedings, while the Japanese delegation emphasised the importance of documenting civilian harm in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Many other states called on Russia to cease its aggression and indiscriminate bombing of civilians and it was noted multiple times that Russia&#8217;s campaign has targeted and destroyed civilian neighbourhoods using wide area effect explosive weapons \u2013 referring to the scenes of destruction in Kherson, Mariupol, and Kharkiv.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.\u00a0 The gap between &#8216;IHL is enough&#8217; and &#8216;IHL does not go far enough&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Broadly the delegates and countries fall into two groups &#8211; those that believe international humanitarian law (IHL) is enough to protect civilians under attack in urban areas &#8211; and those that argue more is needed to protect civilians.<\/p>\n<p>States such as the USA, UK, France and Israel argued that any political declaration could not introduce new legal requirements (which it cannot) and that the requirements currently set out under IHL should be sufficient protection for civilians. Currently, these frameworks emphasise for example that deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure constitutes a violation of IHL &#8211; and that any military actions must be both proportionate, and distinguish between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n<p>Those backing strong wording to the political declaration text &#8211; from Ireland to the ICRC &#8211; insist that adherence to IHL alone is not doing enough to protect civilians during much urban fighting.<\/p>\n<p>The US nevertheless called on those states gathered not to produce an &#8220;unrealistic impression&#8221; that civilians would not be harmed in conflict, while emphasising that explosive weapons are &#8220;considered a legitimate and lawful means of warfare when used in accordance with IHL.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But other states, as well as civil society organisations such as Human Rights Watch, emphasised that any resolution which merely restated the value of IHL &#8211; and how states must abide by it &#8211; would effectively be useless, as it would be an iteration of what states have already committed to.<\/p>\n<p>States such as Finland and Sweden remarked that there are gaps within IHL around EWIPA , and mere compliance with IHL is not enough to protect civilians.\u00a0 This has been an ongoing fissure during previous consultations, and continues to be a major fault line.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.\u00a0 Reverberating effects<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The particularities of the language used in the eventual political declaration are at the heart of the ongoing consultations in Geneva \u2013 with discussions about whether to \u201cavoid\u201d or \u201crestrict\u201d the use of explosive weapons in populated areas already a key sticking point.<\/p>\n<p>An additional area of tension appears to the so-called \u201creverberating effects\u201d of EWIPA, which are essentially the long-term effects.<\/p>\n<p>An example of a reverberating effect would be the destruction of a bridge. If destroyed, it has the immediate effect of removing a crucial piece of civilian infrastructure. But even after the conflict finishes the destruction could also mean that people can\u2019t travel across a certain river, making it harder to access other kinds of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals or schools.<\/p>\n<p>These long-term impacts were the subject of much discussion on Wednesday \u2013 with some states, such as the US, Israel, and the UK all noting that \u2018reverberating effects\u2019 is neither a legal term nor &#8211; they claimed &#8211; a widely accepted term with a clear definition. The US also said it would not accept a &#8216;novel&#8217; term such as reverberating effects in the eventual political declaration.<\/p>\n<p>However, civil society organisations such as PAX and observer states such as the Vatican suggested that it would be difficult to meaningfully understand the full implications of how civilian populations were impacted without incorporating \u2018reverberating\u2019 effects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Focus on the humanitarian impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Holy See opened its own remarks by noting that it believes conventional weapons should be named \u201cweapons of mass displacement,\u201d a nod to the ongoing long term effects that explosive weapons can have. The Danish Refugee Council also noted that the use of EWIPA can contribute to displacement, and in time, continuously produce forms of renewed displacement.<\/p>\n<p>Some other states such as Uruguay emphasised the need to collect and monitor the impacts of EWIPA on specific groups \u2013 such as those with disabilities, or those who face discrimination because of their gender. Organisations such as CIVIC, PAX and Humanity and Inclusion also spoke about the psychological and mental effects of the use of explosive weapons, notably the need for a survivor-centric approach to any kind of political declaration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a05. The impact of non-state actors\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the political declaration is primarily a matter between states, the UK, Israel, the US and others asked that the considerations around EWIPA must also extend to non-state actors, such as armed groups, in the interest of maintaining what they termed a balanced account of how explosive weapons are actually used in populated areas.<\/p>\n<p>The US noted for example that \u201cthe declaration has to make it clear that all belligerents, including non-state armed groups, must take steps to address the harms to civilians and civilian objects.\u201d The Turkish delegation argued that asking non-state actors to really consider these impacts would also mean they would be considered as legitimate parties to an international armed conflict &#8211; which they are currently, for the most part, not.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The declaration has to make it clear that all belligerents, including non state armed groups, must take steps to address the harms to civilians and civilian objects,\u201d says the USA, intervening for the second time today. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cNBYvzncqN\">pic.twitter.com\/cNBYvzncqN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Airwars (@airwars) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/airwars\/status\/1511709619739103242?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":82612,"template":"","tags":[25,363,729,700,3,705,891,4,872,400],"country":[469,245,773,373,436,246,767,878,435],"belligerent":[438,735,247,249],"authors":[820],"class_list":["post-82611","news_and_analysis","type-news_and_analysis","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-civilian-casualties","tag-civilian-harm","tag-ewipa","tag-explosive-weapons","tag-iraq","tag-political-declaration","tag-reverberatingf-effects","tag-syria","tag-ukraine","tag-yemen","country-afghanistan","country-iraq","country-israel","country-libya","country-somalia","country-syria","country-the-gaza-strip","country-ukraine","country-yemen","belligerent-israeli-military","belligerent-nato-forces","belligerent-russian-military","belligerent-coalition","authors-sanjana-varghese"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_and_analysis\/82611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_and_analysis"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news_and_analysis"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82611"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=82611"},{"taxonomy":"belligerent","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/belligerent?post=82611"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwars.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=82611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}