Expert meeting on improvised explosive devices

According to a report by Action on Armed Violence, 22,735 civilians worldwide were injured or killed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in 2013, a 70% rise since 2011. In September, Geneva Call joined over 40 experts gathered at Chatham House in London to explore how to effectively address this issue.

It was generally understood that the problem is how IEDs are used, often directly targeting civilians, rather than the device itself. In addition to advocating for parties to armed conflicts to apply international humanitarian norms on the use of IEDs, which is the work Geneva Call is doing daily with armed non-State actors, participants proposed other courses of action.

These included stigmatization, improving assistance to victims, strengthening transfer and trade regulations of IED components, increasing coordination of IED detection and disposal, as well as enhancing policing efforts to apprehend those responsible.