Slovakia has acknowledged the harm caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA) and committed to action on the issue.
Statements
During the UN Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict held in February 2014, Slovakia argued that “more effective mechanisms to monitor the use of explosive weapons in heavily populated areas must be created.”[1]
Slovakia has signed onto numerous joint statements by the European Union (EU), condemning the use of EWIPA and the harms it causes to civilians and civilian objects, including during the UN Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in 2011,[2] 2012,[3] and 2013,[4] and at the UN Security Council Open Debate War in Cities: Protection of Civilians in Urban Settings on 25 January 2022.[5] The EU also spoke out against the use of EWIPA during the General Debate of the 72nd UN General Assembly First Committee in 2017, recognising its potential impact on civilians and calling on all parties to armed conflict to fully comply with international humanitarian law (IHL).[6]
Slovakia aligned with the World Humanitarian Summit Core Commitment to “Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity” in May 2016 in its national capacity and as an EU member state. This included the commitment “to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities, for instance by working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and by sparing civilian infrastructure from military use in the conduct of military operations.”[7]
Slovakia participated in the Vienna Conference on the Protection of Civilians in Urban Warfare in October 2019[8] and in the second round of consultations in Geneva in 2020 but did not issue any statements.[9]
[1] Permanent Mission of Slovakia to the United Nations (2014). “Statement to the UN Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’. http://www.peacewomen.org/sites/default/files/statement_-_slovakia_0.pdf.
[2] European Union (2011). ‘EU Statement during the May 2011 Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’. http://www.peacewomen.org/sites/default/files/eu_poc_11may2011_0.pdf.
[3] European Union (2012). ‘EU Statement during the June 2012 Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’. http://www.peacewomen.org/security-council/security-council-open-debate-protection-civilians-armed-conflict-june-2012/.
[4] European Union (2013). ‘EU Statement during the August 2013 Security Council Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’.
[5] Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will (2022). ‘UN Security Council Debates War in Cities and the Protection of Civilians’. https://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/news/latest-news/16009-un-security-council-debates-war-in-cities-and-the-protection-of-civilians.
[6] European Union (2017). ‘UNGA72 First Committee Statement’. https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/1com/1com17/statements/18Oct_EU.pdf.
[7] Agenda for Humanity. ‘Slovakia’. https://agendaforhumanity.org/stakeholders/commitments/351.html.
[8] INEW (2019). ‘Vienna Conference Marks Turning Point as States Support Negotiation of an International Political Declaration on Explosive Weapons’. https://www.inew.org/vienna-conference-marks-turning-point-as-states-support-negotiation-of-an-international-political-declaration-on-explosive-weapons/.
[9] Laura Boillot, Article 36 (2020). ‘More than 70 States Engage in Discussions on Political Declaration’. https://article36.org/updates/more-than-70-states-engage-in-discussions-on-political-declaration/.