The Human Cost of Incendiary Weapons and Shortcomings of International Law

Please register: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ybs3ZFu4RR-s5S1MtKEVCg

This online event highlights the horrific human cost of incendiary weapons and the need for a more effective international response. It features a trauma nurse who treated a girl burned by white phosphorus in Afghanistan, a survivor of an incendiary weapons attack on a Syrian school, a burn doctor with expertise in the challenges of rehabilitation, and a lawyer who will explain the steps states should take to address the shortcomings of international law. Forty years after it opened for signature, Protocol III to the Convention on Conventional Weapons has failed to prevent the civilian harm caused by incendiary weapons.

Speakers:
– Christine Collins, Critical care trauma nurse and former Captain in the US Air Force
– “Abu Taim,” Survivor of an incendiary weapons attack on a Syrian school
– Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, Medical Director of Trauma, Burn, and Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
– Bonnie Docherty, Associate Director, Armed Conflict & Civilian Protection Initiative, Harvard Law School; Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch
– Roos Boer, Humanitarian Disarmament Program Lead, PAX (Moderator)

For further reading, see Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic, “They Burn Through Everything”: The Human Cost of Incendiary Weapons and the Limits of International Law, November 2020.

For more information, contact Jacqulyn Kantack, [email protected]