IBA and DanChurchAid Host Screening of Eternal Sentinel, a Documentary on the Toll of Landmines on Civilians

On 7 October 2026, on the occasion of the International Bar Association’s Annual Conference in Copenhagen, the IBA Human Rights Law Committee and DanChurchAid hosted a screening of Eternal Sentinel, Maryam Ashrafi’s documentary on the impact of landmines and improvised explosive devices on children, journalists, and other civilians.

The film examines the lethal legacy of mines and improvised explosive devices in Syria and Iraq, where, the film reports, such incidents have risen tenfold since the defeat of ISIS, killing countless civilians, including children. The official trailer is available here.

After a drinks and canapés reception, Marissa Kardon Weber, Co-Chair of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee, and Karin Elisabeth Lind, International Director of DanChurchAid, opened the evening and invited Ashrafi to the stage to share what inspired her to tell this story.

When the film ended, Mark Stephens, Co-Chair of the IBA Human Rights Institute, moderated a panel discussion with Ashrafi; Verity Coyle, Deputy Director for Arms in the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division of Human Rights Watch; Graeme Ogilvie, humanitarian deminer and DanChurchAid Country Director for Libya and Lebanon; and Ambassador Stephen Rapp (ret.), Chair of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability.

Ambassador Rapp opened with an overview of the legal regime governing landmines, including the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and the Mine Ban Treaty’s prohibition on anti-personnel mines. Drawing on his work in the field, Ogilvie described the devastation landmines cause. A landmine costs as little as $5 to make and about $1,000 to remove, yet a single detonation can take a life or a limb. Holding up a small canister from his pocket, he showed the audience how little it takes to kill a human being. Coyle described Human Rights Watch’s role in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and stressed how much work remains, given the continued use of landmines in Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, and beyond.

In closing remarks, John Balouziyeh, Co-Vice Chair of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee, reflected that war is inherently unjust because the innocent inevitably perish in it. States enacted international humanitarian law to protect humanity, yet the law has not gone far enough to protect civilians: landmines alone kill or maim thousands of civilians every year. He called on civil society to press for universal adherence to the ban on anti-personnel mines and to resist its erosion. Where states refuse a total ban, he urged, they must at a minimum be held to the prohibitions on persistent mines, which lie in wait for decades, and on non-detectable mines, which deminers cannot find.

The Committee also used the occasion to launch Law, Ethics, and Armed Conflict: An International Law Reader, co-published by the IBA and JuraLaw International to commemorate eighty years since the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg pronounced its sentences. The book arrives as more than one hundred armed conflicts rage across the globe and civilians increasingly find themselves in the line of fire. Its contributors – practitioners, scholars, military lawyers, and humanitarian professionals – share a commitment to protecting civilians in armed conflict. Across eleven chapters, they confront the most pressing legal and ethical questions of contemporary warfare in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Myanmar, and beyond, including states’ continuing duty to prevent genocide, trials in absentia, the forcible transfer of children, accountability for the crime of aggression, and universal jurisdiction as a tool of international justice. The book is available in paperback and as an open-access eBook here.

At the close of the evening, DanChurchAid Secretary-General Jonas Nøddekær presented copies of the book and bouquets of flowers to Angus Flood, Events Officer of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee, and Ane Sommer Knudsen, Head of Policy and Advocacy at DanChurchAid, in recognition of their work organizing the event.

The Human Rights Law Committee thanks the IBA Foundation for the financial support that made the screening and discussion possible, DanChurchAid for hosting the event, and the co-sponsors who helped draw a large audience: the IBA Arab Regional Forum, the IBA Bar Issues Commission, the IBA Business Human Rights Law Committee, the IBA Criminal Law Committee, the IBA Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), the IBA Poverty and Social Development Law Committee, the IBA Pro Bono Committee, the IBA Public Law Section, the IBA Rule of Law Forum, and the IBA War Crimes Committee.