New publication: Women and Explosive Weapons

Today we are launching our new report Women and Explosive Weapons. Concern with the use of explosive weapons in populated areas has increased over the last few years, due to the severe harm caused to civilians and the wider community. However, the debate has so far not sufficiently highlighted the specific impact that explosive weapons have on women. This publication therefore seeks to draw attention to some of the unique impacts on women that explosive weapons have when used in populated areas. 

The report calls on governments to recognise that the use of explosive weapons in populated areas causes severe humanitarian problems, requiring the development of stronger and more explicit international standards, restrictions, and prohibitions. For a full list of our recommendations, please click here. 

The focus on women and explosive weapons is part of Reaching Critical Will's attempt to highlight the impact of weapons on women and the importance of a strengthened gender perspective in disarmament and arms control in order to ensure inclusive security and prevent all human suffering.

The report briefly describes explosive weapons and the legal tools available to assess their use, focusing in particular on legal documents that support greater inclusion of gender analysis and women’s participation. The second part of this paper gives an overview on how explosive weapons specifically affect women and why a gendered analysis of the impact of explosive weapons use in populated areas is needed.
 
You can download the full report as a pdf here, and the recommendations here. The report is also available in Arabic.