Focusing efforts on a specific issue by relying on a small group of convinced States: this is the strategy that led to 83 States adopting a new Political Declaration on explosive weapons in populated areas. Admittedly, the new text is non-binding, but it commits the signatories, and it deals with the main threat to civilians in contemporary conflicts.
Beyond the changes it calls for in military practices, this instrument also represents a lever for improving the humanitarian response in this type of context. As long as the humanitarian actors seize it...
Read the article in French in Défis Humanitaires.
