CCW meeting of high contracting parties concludes with lowest common denominator outcomes yet again

From 15–17 November, the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) met in Geneva for their annual meeting. The session, however, did not go as planned. Russia objected to the participation of observers, which led to an unprecedented situation in which the whole meeting was held in informal mode and negotiation of the outcome document was held entirely behind closed doors. No language on incendiary weapons was included and another weak mandate for work on autonomous weapons was agreed. See RCW's report for details.