Chatham House and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) hosted a meeting of experts on the humanitarian impacts of explosive weapons in London from 23-24 September 2013.  This meeting follows repeated calls by the UN Secretary-General that the use in densely populated areas of explosive weapons with wide-area effects should be avoided, and that states should undertake focused discussion on this issue.

INEW members participated in the meeting, including representatives from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), Article 36, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, IKV Pax Christi, Oxfam. and Save the Children.

INEW supported a public event hosted by Chatham House on “Curbing the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated” that took [place on 23 September. The speakers were Richard Moyes (Co-coordinator of INEW), Cat Carter (Save the Children) and Paul Conroy (journalist and photographer) who discussed their work documenting the use and impact of explosive weapons and possible options for building better protection for civilians in the future.