Addressing landmine pollution: how the ‘polluter pays’ principle can help

April 17, 2025 14 mins read Accountability / Analysis / Conduct of Hostilities / Emerging Voices / Generating Respect for IHL / IHL / Special Themes / Weapons Goran Sandić

Landmines, a persistent threat in post-conflict zones, pose severe risks to both human lives and ...

Anti-personnel mines: the false promise of security through exceptionalism in war

March 13, 2025 14 mins read Analysis / Conduct of Hostilities / Generating Respect for IHL / IHL / Law and Conflict / Related bodies of law / Weapons Cordula Droege & Maya Brehm

Earlier this month, Lithuania’s unprecedented withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) took effect. ...

AI, war and (in)humanity: the role of human emotions in military decision-making

February 20, 2025 11 mins read Accountability / Analysis / Artificial intelligence in military decision-making / Conduct of Hostilities / Generating Respect for IHL / IHL / New Technologies / Weapons Joanna L D Wilson

Contemporary armed conflicts are increasingly complex and, through rapid technological development, increasingly remote. This calls ...

The problem of algorithmic bias in AI-based military decision support systems

September 3, 2024 13 mins read Accountability / Analysis / Artificial intelligence in military decision-making / Conduct of Hostilities / New Technologies / Special Themes / Weapons Ingvild Bode & Ishmael Bhila

Algorithmic bias has long been recognized as a key problem affecting decision-making processes that integrate ...

The road less travelled: ethics in the international regulatory debate on autonomous weapon systems

April 25, 2024 10 mins read Analysis / Autonomous Weapons / IHL / Law and Conflict / New Technologies / Special Themes / Weapons Alexander Blanchard

Efforts to address the ethical challenges posed by autonomous weapon systems are growing. In December ...

Protecting civilians in conflict: the urgency of implementing the Political Declaration on Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas

April 22, 2024 9 mins read Analysis / Generating Respect for IHL / IHL / Influencing Behaviour in Armed Conflict / Urban warfare / Weapons Laura Boillot, Laurent Gisel, Paul Holtom, Frederik Siem, Dina Abou Samra & Juliana Helou van der Berg

The widespread use of heavy explosive weapons has reached alarming levels, exacting a staggering toll ...

From the Middle East to West Africa: responding to the humanitarian impacts of improvised anti-personnel mines

February 8, 2024 13 mins read Analysis / Armed Groups / Landmines and the Law / Weapons Josephine Dresner

Though remarkable progress has been made towards the eradication of anti-personnel landmines (APM) since the adoption of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) ...

Sexual violence in conflict and weapons: unpacking the links for better prevention

September 28, 2023 7 mins read Gender / Gender and conflict / Sexual Violence / Weapons Hana Salama

It’s often said that sexual violence is a weapon of war, but the actual weapons used to perpetrate these crimes are rarely discussed. ...

Space security governance: steps to limit the human costs of military operations in outer space

August 22, 2023 13 mins read Analysis / Law and Conflict / Outer Space / Technology in Humanitarian Action / War, law, and outer space / Weapons Nivedita Raju

Civilians are heavily dependent on space systems for everyday life. Yet, those same space systems ...

War, law and outer space: pathways to reduce the human cost of military space operations

August 15, 2023 16 mins read Analysis / Communications / Law and Conflict / New Technologies / Outer Space / Technology in Humanitarian Action / War, law, and outer space / Weapons Wen Zhou

Despite the long-term desire of the international community to explore and use outer space for ...

Loitering munitions: flagging an urgent need for legally binding rules for autonomy in weapon systems

June 29, 2023 10 mins read Analysis / Artificial Intelligence and Armed Conflict / Autonomous Weapons / New Technologies / Weapons Ingvild Bode & Tom F.A. Watts

Earlier this month, a viral story alleged that a US Air Force simulation took place ...

Preventing and eradicating the deadly legacy of explosive remnants of war

February 23, 2023 13 mins read Analysis / Conduct of Hostilities / Humanitarian Action / Law and Conflict / Weapons Eirini Giorgou

The deadly legacy of armed conflict continues to claim lives long after the fighting is ...