Active armed conflicts have reached the highest point since World War II, with devastating humanitarian and long-term impacts. Widespread illicit proliferation of weapons, notably small arms and light weapons, is fueling not only violence in general, but sexual violence specifically. Early warning is a critical tool for enabling anticipatory action to prevent the outbreak, escalation and relapse of armed conflict and violence, or to mitigate their consequences. Improving early warning capabilities and tools is thus essential and relies on access to a broad spectrum of intersecting data, including on weapons flows and misuse. However, arms-related data is used only sporadically in early warning and its potential remains underexplored.
Within this context, the 2026 Data for Peace Conference, held under the theme “From Early Warning to Early Action: Bridging Scientific Innovation with Policy and Practice”, brings together researchers, peacebuilders, policymakers, data providers, humanitarian actors and peace technologists to strengthen how data and technology support violence prevention, anticipatory action and crisis response. It takes place from 15 to 17 June 2026, combining two livestreamed in-person days in Stockholm, Sweden (15-16 June) with one fully virtual day (17 June).
As part of the conference, UNIDIR is organizing an event to provide an interactive space to discuss innovations in arms data collection and how they are used – or could be used – to concretely support early warning and anticipatory action, including for preventing conflict-related sexual violence. It will consider the relevance, obstacles and helpful avenues, including technologies, to strengthen the use of such data for violence prevention moving forward.
Agenda
- Introductory remarks
- Hana Salama, Researcher, Integrated Approaches, UNIDIR
- Demo on real-time, AI-enhanced arms data collection
- Prof. Dr Paul W. Thurner, Chair, Empirical Political Research and Policy Analysis, Department of Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
- Demo on innovation in arms data collection
- Bruno Langeani, Data Analyst, Conflict Armament Research
- Demo on scaling AI-powered conflict-related sexual violence early warning and consideration of arms data
- George Hodge, Data Solutions Unit Head, Innovation and Analytics Hub, United Nations Human Rights
- Demo on arms data use in local early warning mechanisms and enhancement efforts in considering such data for the mechanism
- Edward Jombla, Regional Coordinator for Early Warning, West African Network for Peacebuilding
- Interactive exchange
Moderated by Alexa Timlick, Doctoral Candidate, Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz; former Research Associate at Violence and Impacts Early Warning System.
When and where
Wednesday, 17 June 2026 | 11:00-12:00 CEST | Zoom Room A, Online
Check your local time here.
Participants
The event organizers encourage the participation of representatives of States, the United Nations, international and regional organizations, academia, research institutes and civil society across science, implementation and policymaking interested in conflict early warning and arms control. Experts in both fields are particularly invited to attend.
RSVP
For online participation, please register here.
Registration and participation instructions:
Step 1: Register for the virtual day of the Data for Peace Conference. Registration is required to receive the link, and it will be open until Monday, 15 June 2026.
Step 2: Registered participants will receive the connection link from the Data for Peace Conference organizers a few days before the event through their registered email.
Step 3: After receiving the connection link, join Zoom Room A on Wednesday, June 17 2026, a few minutes before 11:00 CEST.
Please note that there will be three links (Room A, Room B and Room C) used throughout the virtual day of the Data for Peace Conference. You can participate in this event by joining Zoom Room A.
Further information
For further information, please contact Ursign Hofmann at ursign.hofmann@un.org or Joshua Bata at joshua.bata@un.org.
In partnership with
