Suchergebnisse

International humanitarian law (IHL) carves out an impartial humanitarian space & recognizes the need for a neutral & independent organization to provide protection & assistance to victims of armed conflict. Against this backdrop, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has long served as an impartial, neutral & independent intermediary, carrying out the various tasks entrusted to it by the international community. Today's conflict environment & the "humanitarian" response to this environment have put pressure on the ICRC's conception of humanitarian action. Yet based on its experience, the ICRC remains convinced of the added value of its approach & is working to demonstrate the specific advantages of neutral & independent humanitarian action through its operational decisions & field strategies. This paper begins by identifying the legal basis for the ICRC's breed of humanitarian action, stressing how the ICRC's broad mission derives from this legal basis. It then examines current conflict trends & the challenges they pose for humanitarian action. Finally, it argues that neutral & independent humanitarian action -- as provided by the ICRC -- is essential in limiting the means employed & the human costs of war & armed violence. Adapted from the source document.

Although the promotion of international humanitarian law (IHL) in academic circles is a relatively new activity for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), it has made rapid progress since the mid 1990s. Today, the organisation is following up on university-related activities in some 130 countries around the world. Overseen and harmonised by the ICRC headquarters in Geneva but implemented primarily by operational and regional delegations in the field, the ICRC's programmes targeting university professors and students are notable for their variety and diversity. Nevertheless, the organisation has made a concerted effort to ensure that all such programmes further the same broad objective and operate according to the same principles of action. In the second section of this paper, we examine the issues related to including IHL courses in the regular curricula of the universities and faculties concerned and present themodus operandiadopted by the ICRC on the basis of 'lessons learned'. In the third section, we highlight the ICRC's experience of promoting IHL in academic circles in the Russian Federation. Section 4 draws some conclusions.