Second International Conference
18 - 20 November 2025
San Jose Conference
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
Addressing the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA) remains one of the most pressing contemporary humanitarian challenges. As armed conflicts continue to be waged around the world, marked by an increasing and extensive use of EWIPA leading to devastating humanitarian harm, suffering, destruction and long-term socio-economic repercussions, it now falls on the international community to redouble its commitment to strengthen the protection of civilians through dialogue, cooperation, and the shared goal to reduce the human cost of weapons.
AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE
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.
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.
Set a roadmap for action leading up to the third international conference and beyond.
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 November
Reception
An opening reception will take place on 19 November at 18h30 / 6h30 PM at the Hotel Real Intercontinental (pool area).
Buses will be made available to transport delegates from the reception venue back to their hotels after the event.
Please note that you will need a valid badge to enter the conference reception on Wednesday evening.
Statements
Participants are encouraged to send requests to speak at the general debate as well as their statements 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.
Please also note that there will not be a right of reply to statements.
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.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The conference will take place at Hotel Real InterContinental San José.
For all practical information please consult the logistical note, available here.
Registration
All participants to the conference are required to register here.
Registration deadline: 19 October 2025.
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) and African States.
The Sponsorship Program is administered by UNODA with financial contributions of the Republic of Ireland and Norway.
Interest in sponsorship should be marked during the registration process and must be communicated by 25 September 2025. Selected candidates will be contacted by UNODA directly for all travel arrangements.
Please note that requests for sponsorship received after 25 September 2025 will not be considered.
For more information, please contact ewipa@un.org. For questions on the Protection Forum, please contact info@inew.org.
1211 Geneva 10
SwitzerlandPhone: +41 (0)12 345 5678
E-mail: ewipa@un.org