Publications

Seeing Through the Rubble

The civilian impact of the use of explosive weapons in the fight against ISIS

October 26, 2020

This joint report by the PAX Humanitarian Disarmament Team and the monitoring organization Airwars demonstrates the dire and long lasting impact on civilians of the recent international coalition’s campaign in Mosul, Raqqa and Hawijah and calls for stronger international commitment against the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The analysis goed beyond the weapons' direct impact, studying too their indirect and longer-term negative effects on civilians.

Transparent reporting on civilian casualties (Dutch)

PAX briefing paper

October 5, 2020

This briefing paper was prepared by PAX in anticipation of a parliamentary debate on new transparency measures around reporting on civilian casualties from Dutch military action. The paper explains the shortcomings of the proposed measures and outlines its recommendations for improved practice. It is only available in Dutch.

Civilian harm tracking and investigation

Challenges and opportunities identified in contemporary literature

July 10, 2020

This paper follows up on the main findings of the literature study into civilian harm tracking tools and investigation mechanisms (published May 2020). It finds that the current state of tracking and investigation practices appears compromised by three interrelated challenges: A lack of universally adopted policies and standardized operational practices hampers effectiveness of civilian harm tracking; contemporary warfare’s increasing ‘remoteness’ presents new challenges that have yet to be addressed; a lack of transparency around the processing of civilian harm claims – characteristic of many militaries – further aggravates these shortcomings

A River of Death -- Arabic version

How oil pollution is impacting health and livelihoods in conflict-affected north east Syria

July 2, 2020

A River of Death shows how persistent pollution from a degrading oil facility has led to tens-of-thousands of barrels of oil flowing into canals and creeks, and ending up in a 160km long river. Through open-source investigation, remote sensing and local partners, this research demonstrates how the years-long pollution of the river has serious health and environmental implications for the thousands of Syrian families spread across 200 communities living along the riverbed, affecting tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural lands and bringing severe risk to drinking water sources through groundwater contamination, as well as potential effects on livestock.

A River of Death

How oil pollution is impacting health and livelihoods in conflict-affected north east Syria

June 30, 2020

A River of Death shows how persistent pollution from a degrading oil facility has led to tens-of-thousands of barrels of oil flowing into canals and creeks, and ending up in a 160km long river. Through open-source investigation, remote sensing and local partners, this research demonstrates how the years-long pollution of the river has serious health and environmental implications for the thousands of Syrian families spread across 200 communities living along the riverbed, affecting tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural lands and bringing severe risk to drinking water sources through groundwater contamination, as well as potential effects on livestock.

Civilian harm tracking, analysis and response

PAX PoC team position paper

June 25, 2020

This paper outlines the PoC program's position with regard to civilian harm tracking, analysis and response within the context of modern warfare. It explains the concepts - offering a newly developed definition of civilian harm - and lays out why PAX deems civilian harm tracking, analysis and response a political, moral, humanitarian and strategic objective.

Literature Review Civilian Harm Tracking Tools & Investigation Mechanisms

May 2, 2020

This literature review seeks to provide a mapping of publications that address civilian harm (CH) tracking tools and investigation mechanisms with the objective of garnering an overview of existing tools and mechanisms, their limitations, and practical recommendations for improved and more transparent CH tracking and investigation.

PAX PoC annual report 2019 'Amplifying voices for the Protection of Civilians'

Annual report 2019 'Amplifying voices for the Protection of Civilians: Improving standards and accountability of PoC and military operations'

May 1, 2020

This report reflects upon the first reporting period for the program, “Amplifying voices for the Protection of Civilians: Improving standards and accountability of PoC and military operations" initiated in September 2019. This marked the beginning of a new partnership between the Department of Stabilization & Humanitarian Aid (DSH) and PAX’s Protection of Civilians (PoC) team that will continue through 2023. This is an ambitious multi-year initiative aimed at improving the status of protection for people living in conflict-affected areas. The overall desired impact of the program is that targeted interventions become more inclusive, civilian-focused, and relevant to local protection needs.

The PAX PoC Annual Report 2019 is available in PDF format and in Dashboard format on TolaData. The report is divided into three components:

1. A program-level summary of progress in Sep-Dec 2019.
2. Project-level reports for the 4 components of the PoC Program: Engaging International Actors (EIA), Human Security Survey - Iraq (HSS-IQ), Human Security Survey - South Sudan (HSS-SS), and Protection in Practice (PiP).
3. Key annexes.

• PoC Program
• EIA
• HSS-IQ
• HSS-SS
• PiP

Explosive weapons with wide area effects and risk to civilians

A background note to theconsultations on a politicaldeclaration on explosive weapons in populated areas

February 10, 2020

Explosive weapons that have wide area effects are especially problematic when used in populated areas. This paper elaborates on the link between the technical characteristics of these weapons and the risk they pose to civilians.

Contributing to Human Security through training: a mission impossible?

Conference report PAX PoC event December 3, 2019

January 27, 2020

On December 3, 2019, PAX brought together international training experts and policy makers to reflect on best practices and pitfalls of international contributions to training with the explicit aim to discuss and suggest recommendations to the Dutch training efforts. The PoC department of PAX initiated this event as part of its partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Goal of this conference was to bring together national and international practitioners and policy makers in the field of training with the explicit aim to discuss and suggest recommendations to the Dutch training efforts and to contribute to the impact on Human Security through Dutch contributions to international training.