22-23 September 2025, United Kingdom

Organised by Article 36 and Airwars.

 

Background

Central within the recently adopted political declaration are commitments to implement policies and practices, aimed at strengthening the protection of civilians and ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law. Among other actions, endorsing states have committed to:

• Ensure that armed forces adopt and implement a range of policies and practices to help avoid civilian harm, including by restricting or refraining, as appropriate, from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, when their use may be expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects.
• Ensure that armed forces, including in their policies and practices, take into account the direct and indirect effects on civilians and civilian objects which can reasonably be foreseen in the planning of military operations and the execution of attacks in populated areas, and conduct damage assessments, to the degree feasible, and identify lessons learned.
• Collect, share, and make publicly available disaggregated data on the direct and indirect effects on civilians and civilian objects of military operations involving the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, such as recording and tracking civilian casualties.

 

About the workshop

This workshop will provide an opportunity for military officials and other experts to discuss the following:

• The Declaration’s central commitments and national policies, measures and approaches to operationalising these commitments within endorsing states;
• How to contribute to international discussions on implementation of the declaration, including by sharing guidance and examples of good policy and practice;
• Existing measures, baseline standards, and best practice to understanding the characteristics and effects of explosive weapons, and considerations over their use in populated areas; tracking civilian casualties, and understanding and mitigating secondary and third order effects.

 

The workshop will invite military representatives from around 20 endorsing states from all regions. It will be of an informal nature and held under the Chatham House rule.

For more information or an expression of interest, please contact: Megan Wiseman-Searle, Operations Coordinator at Article 36: megan@article36.org

 

Background reading for the workshop

Avoiding civilian harm by restricting or refraining from use of explosive weapons in populated areas, May 2025

Tracking civilian harm from use of explosive weapons in populated areas, May 2025