Second international conference

of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas

Conference documents

Programme

18 November

Protection Forum 2025 - A Protection Forum will be organised by the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW) in cooperation with FUNPADEM and Seguridad Humana en América Latina y el Caribe (SEHLAC). More information can be found here.

Please indicate your interest in attending the protection forum when registering to the Conference. 

19-20 November

The San Jose Conference

Aims

1. Foster and promote global universalization, both in the region and globally, as well as to serve as an important occasion for non-endorsing States to announce their formal endorsement and grow support for the Declaration.

2. Review and advance implementation efforts with a focus on responding to the reality of the impacts of EWIPA, fostering dialogue, sharing knowledge and best practice.

3. Set a roadmap for action leading up to the third international conference and beyond.

Opening Reception

An opening reception will take place on 19 November at 18h30 / 6h30 PM at the Hotel Real Intercontinental (pool area). 

Please note that buses will be made available to transport participants from the reception venue back to their hotels after the event.

Please also note that a valid conference badge is needed to attend the reception.

Practical Information

Statements

Participants are encouraged to send requests to speak at the general debate to ewipa@un.org by 10 November 2025. 

Kindly note that statements for the general debate should not exceed three minutes, and that not all requests to deliver statements may be accommodated due to time constraints. Allocation of speaker slots are decided on a first come first serve basis. 

Sessions 2-5 will be conducted as interactive panel discussions with the ability for thematic interventions, questions and comments from the floor, hence there will not be a list of speakers for those sessions. 

Please also note that there will not be a right of reply to statements.

All participants are kindly requested to send statements to ewipa@un.org prior to delivery to facilitate interpretation. Unless otherwise requested, statements will be made available on the website.

Location

The conference will take place at Hotel Real InterContinental San José.

Registration

All participants to the conference are required to register here. 

All participants are requested to pick up their conference badges before the start of the conference. Registration desks will be be available at the conference venue on the morning of 19 November, as well as at the protection forum on 18 November. 

Sponsorship Programme

*** The sponsorship programme is now CLOSED ***

A Sponsorship Program to support the participation of State representatives at the Second International Conference of the EWIPA Declaration will be available for countries qualifying as Least Developed Countries (LDC) as well as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as per the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

The Sponsorship Program is administered by UNODA with financial contributions of Ireland and Norway.

Contact

For more information on the conference, please contact ewipa@un.org.

For questions on the Protection Forum, please contact info@inew.org.