A man stands in front of his destroyed house in the village of Bisober, Ethiopia, on December 9, 2020. © Eduardo Soteras Jalil / MSF

The third consultation on a political declaration on explosive weapons was held 3-5 March 2021.

INEW delivered several statements, available below:

Part A (Preamble)

• Section 1: Problems and Challenges
• Section 2: International Humanitarian Law

Part B (Operative Section)

• Sections 3 & 4: Operational and Other Commitments

We also broadcast short video commentary on proceedings:

• On the resumption of the process and what our network wants to see in a political declaration
• On the need to accurately and honestly reflect in the text the gravity & severity of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas
• On Day 1’s proceedings, what states focused on and what we hope Day 2 will bring
• On how the political declaration relates to International Humanitarian Law
• On why we need more clarity and boldness in Section 3 of the political declaration
• On Day 2’s proceedings and state comments on the legal and operational sections of the draft text
• On why we need to commit to data collection and victim assistance
• And a summary of how the three days of consultations went & what’s next

INEW also prepared a written response to the January 2021 draft text, available here.

Written submissions will be available here on Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs website.