Dublin, open for signature the political declaration to protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas

ROME – Floors of residential buildings blown away. Bombed out sewage systems or power plants. Like schools or playgrounds, targeted today in Ukraine as already in Yemen, Syria or Libya. With nine out of ten victims who are not soldiers but civilians, killed, maimed, in any case marked forever. These are the numbers of contemporary warfare, the one that does not spare cities, rather besieges and guts them, without regard for lives or for humanitarian law.

The Political Declaration. The emergency is at the heart of the Political Declaration to protect civilians from the consequences of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, open for signature by States from tomorrow, Friday 18 November. “We are counting on the accessions of Germany, Japan, the United States, Switzerland and Austria and Italy also gave a favorable opinion on the occasion of the presentation of the definitive text on 17 June”, he reports to the magazine Overseas Sara Gorelli, manager ofNational Association of Civil War Victims (Anvcg), part of the network International Network on Explosive Weapons (Inew).

Ten years of negotiations. The declaration is the result of more than a decade of negotiations, with civil society organizations lobbying and goading governments. The latest round of negotiations was held at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, and was part of a process that started with the Vienna Conference in 2019. “The patronage of Inew it is supported by more than 45 humanitarian organizations around the world engaged in the protection of civilians in armed conflicts”, underlined Gorelli, present at the negotiations in Switzerland. “In Italy, with the coordination of anvcgthey joined Italian campaign against mines And Italian peace and disarmament network”. On the merits, it should be emphasized that the declaration is not a binding agreement but a political commitment.

Over 230 thousand victims of wars in the world. The goal is to raise awareness and raise an alarm, in the belief that the tools available are no longer sufficient. Because, as explained by Laura Boillot, campaign manager of Inew, “the use of explosive weapons is not prohibited by international humanitarian law, which was conceived in another era, when wars were fought on the battlefield and not in cities”. According to estimates relaunched by the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, in the last ten years the victims of wars in the world have been more than 230 thousand, of which nine out of ten civilians and non-military.

From “collateral damage” to “reverberating effects”. The consequences on populations can also be lethal in the immediate term but also serious in the medium term. This is the case, for example, of damage to civil infrastructures, such as sewage systems, or perhaps of the dissemination of bombs in inhabited or agricultural areas, with fields that become mined and the daily risk of accidents in cities. In this regard, the declaration provides for both the principle of the need to compensate for the damage and the recognition of the so-called “reverberating effects” of the consequences that spread over time and space.

Italy’s choices. Points, this, which also inform the position of the Italian parliament. On 6 April, in particular, the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved a resolution in which the value of the Declaration is recognized as an instrument for the protection of civilians. According to Gorelli, “the parliamentary initiatives have engaged the government of Mario Draghi who is no longer in office but now nothing suggests that the new executive led by Giorgia Meloni may not sign”.

Treaties not for everyone. In the international arena, however, the attempt to protect civilians collides with political and geopolitical resistance. “During the negotiations”, underlines for example Boillot, “Russia and China have expressed skepticism and we do not expect them to sign in the Irish capital”. But be careful: vetoes, absences or distinctions are nothing new at the time of the war in Ukraine but have marked the commitment in favor of “humanitarian disarmament” since the 1990s. It happened with the Treaty for the banning of anti-personnel mines, which however was then ratified in record time. And with the more recent Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibits both their possession and their transfer and stationing. Among the approximately 90 countries that have pledged to respect the agreement, Italy is also missing, one of the member countries of NATO that host atomic warheads in the heart of Europe.

Triple nexus. Dublin confirms that, however, something is moving. According to Gorelli, the signing of the declaration is a confirmation of Italy’s “great attention to the impact of conflicts” and at the same time of the “centrality of the so-called triple link, between humanitarian commitment, cooperation and peace”.