Presenting our data to the UN

In October 2023, Dr Iain Overton (AOAV) & Dr Jack Denny (University of Southampton) presented their research at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York at a side event called: “Understanding and Mitigating the Impact of Explosions Outside Conventional Warfare”. The event was organised by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) and sponsored by the French government.

The presentations included data on global explosive violence, dissecting the harm caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), evaluation of the UN’s counter-IED efforts, and Dr Denny’s research into civilian blast injuries in urban settings.

Speakers included Ambassador Camille Petit, the Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on Disarmament, Dr Iain Overton and Jennifer Dathan of AOAV, Professor Ismene Gizelis from the University of Essex and Dr Jack Denny from the University of Southampton.

As a timely issue, the presentations highlighted the huge impacts of explosive violence on civilians (especially women), the challenges from an engineering and protection perspective, and subsequent recommendations to policymakers and urban planners.

Read more here and see the recording of the event on YouTube.