Explosive remnants of war (ERW)

ERW is explosive ordnance that is left either unexploded or abandoned in the post-conflict environment. It does not mean landmines, but includes all the other forms of conventional explosive weaponry – cluster bombs, rockets, grenades, mortar bombs, artillery shells and air-dropped bombs, for example.

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) comes into existence when an item of explosive ordnance is used but fails to detonate. All types of ordnance are subject to some failure rate – meaning that wherever there has been fighting some UXO contamination is likely.

Abandoned ordnance (AXO) consists of weapons that have not been fired or dropped but have still been left littering the post-conflict environment.  AXO can range from just a few individual items to whole ordnance stores that have been abandoned.

Where societies lack the resources to manage the problem effectively these threats can cause ongoing death and injury for decades.  In the immediate aftermath of conflict concentrations of ERW may be an acute problem.  Where it is dispersed over a wide area ERW can present a long term threat for a society to manage.

Under Protocol V of the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons, states have a responsibility to clear up ERW after conflict and to try to prevent civilian harm from this contamination.

Landmine Action worked for the development and adoption of Protocol V.  Landmine Action continues to work for the universalisation and full implementation of that Protocol.  Through field projects, Landmine Action is clearing ERW in areas of forgotten conflict and helping societies to build the systems that can manage this threat in the long-term.

Landmine Action papers and interventions to the July 2008 Meeting of Experts to CCW Protocol V

Coherence between the Convention on Cluster Munitions and CCW Protocol V

Intervention on coherence by Richard Moyes, Policy & Research Director LMA

National reporting standards under CCW Protocol V

Intervention on CCW Protocol V national report by Richard Moyes, Policy & Research Director LMA