Episodios

  • Principles under pressure: have humanitarian principles stood the test of time?

    Principles under pressure: have humanitarian principles stood the test of time?
    Jul 11 2024
    Recent conflicts have brought to light the jarring personal dilemmas humanitarian workers confront and provoked legitimate questions about the validity of the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence as a framework to navigate them. In this post, Olivier Ray, the ICRC’s Director of Mobilization, Movement, and Partnerships, reaffirms the principles’ enduring relevance precisely because of the sometimes-excruciating trade-offs and dilemmas humanitarian workers must face.
    Más Menos
    16 m
  • Forced to report: mandatory reporting of sexual violence in armed conflict

    Forced to report: mandatory reporting of sexual violence in armed conflict
    Jul 4 2024
    Over the last decade, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement partners, as well as other humanitarian actors responding to sexual violence, have increasingly raised concerns about mandatory reporting policies and whether they may, in fact, be harming rather than helping victims/survivors of sexual- and gender-based violence. Following its 2020 multi-country study on the unintended humanitarian consequences of mandatory reporting, the ICRC and the British Red Cross (BRC) have continuously advocated for a more cohesive survivor-centered approach that harmonizes the legitimate aims of such laws with victims/survivors’ rights to safe and confidential care. To help practitioners and policymakers navigate these complexities, the ICRC and BRC hosted a half-day hybrid conference on 19 June 2024, during which expert panelists provided insights into the research, lived experiences, legal and law enforcement frameworks, as well as operational impact of mandatory reporting. In this post, the ICRC’s Adviser for Humanitarian Diplomacy and Policy Maria Carolina Aissa de Figueredo analyzes some of the key outcomes of these discussions while proposing concrete recommendations for how states, humanitarian actors, and communities can start to reconcile some of the existing challenges around mandatory reporting.
    Más Menos
    19 m
  • De-dehumanization: practicing humanity

    De-dehumanization: practicing humanity
    Jun 27 2024
    There is today an idea of a single humanity, with each member equally valued, and a global legal framework exists to prevent needless human suffering, including in war. Dehumanization arises as the negation of a common, positive, and mutually supportive humanity, though there is no single definition, and it certainly predates its opposite. Research indicates that dehumanization increases the risk of conflict and violence, increases the risk of abuses therein, and makes it harder to resolve conflict. In this post – an overview of a forthcoming article written in her personal capacity – Natalie Deffenbaugh posits mirror definitions of humanity and dehumanization and what they mean, especially in relation to conflict and violence. She looks at why and how dehumanization happens and the real-world harm that can result when espoused or tacitly condoned by those holding power. She closes with an overview of how humanity, in global legal frameworks and as a Fundamental Principle, can curb and push back against some of the worst that dehumanization can do.
    Más Menos
    18 m
  • Trapped in conflict: urban sieges and encirclement

    Trapped in conflict: urban sieges and encirclement
    Jun 20 2024
    Based on the ICRC’s firsthand observations in and around cities in conflict across the globe, an evolved form of one of the oldest methods of warfare – siege and encirclement – remains a persistent feature of today’s urban battles. Civilians trapped within besieged areas or those displaced from them endure some of the most horrific humanitarian conditions. In this post, ICRC Legal Adviser Abby Zeith takes a closer look at contemporary urban siege and encirclement and the civilian harm that they cause, how international humanitarian law (IHL) regulates such methods of warfare, and why states and their policymakers and militaries need to do more to understand, prepare for, and mitigate civilian harm caused by such operations in the future.
    Más Menos
    30 m
  • Reinventing the wheel: 3 lessons the AWS debate can learn from existing arms control agreements

    Reinventing the wheel: 3 lessons the AWS debate can learn from existing arms control agreements
    Jun 13 2024
    For more than a decade, states have met at the UN in Geneva to discuss the governance of autonomous weapon systems (AWS). One pandemic, several real-world cases of artificial intelligence (AI) being used in targeting decisions, and numerous meetings later, there is a growing consensus among states that the challenges posed by AWS should be addressed through both prohibitions and restrictions, a so-called ‘two-tier’ approach. But while there is progress on the basic structure (i.e. two tiers), the actual content of these tiers is debated. To help states elaborate on possible elements of a two-tiered approach to the governance of AWS, Laura Bruun from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) points to three lessons from past arms control negotiations that can be applied to the AWS debate: First, a prohibition does not need to be grounded in a clearly defined class of weapons, second, restrictions can be used to clarify what international humanitarian law (IHL) requires in the specific context of AWS, and third, if there is will (and a need), two-tiered instruments can be grounded in concerns beyond IHL.
    Más Menos
    16 m
  • Internment pursuant to GC4 during an IAC: practice from Norway

    Internment pursuant to GC4 during an IAC: practice from Norway
    Jun 6 2024
    The Fourth Geneva Convention was the first humanitarian law convention dedicated to protections for civilians during armed conflict. Amongst its numerous protective rules, it also provides the main rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) governing the exceptional practice of internment of protected persons – detention of such persons for security reasons during international armed conflict. In this post, part of a series that delves into the grounds and procedures for internment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention, Camilla Guldahl Cooper, Associate Professor at the Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College, gives some context to certain rules in the Fourth Geneva Convention which apply to the initial decision to intern a protected person. She elaborates on what these rules require and how they have been taken into account in Norway’s military manual.
    Más Menos
    9 m
  • Civilian internment in international armed conflict: when does it begin?

    Civilian internment in international armed conflict: when does it begin?
    May 23 2024
    The legal and practical issues related to the exceptional practice of internment of protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention are complex. One such question is when internment begins. The treaty provides guidance on grounds for internment and the procedural safeguards to be applied, as well on the requisite conditions of internment, but is silent on when this type of detention actually starts. This gap in the law, which is the focus of examination, has proven time and again to have pernicious effects on the protection of detained civilians. In this post, and as part of a series on the rules governing the grounds and procedures for the internment of protected persons, former ICRC Senior Legal Adviser Jelena Pejic suggests that a detained civilian should be deemed an internee no later than two weeks after being deprived of liberty for reasons related to an armed conflict, if not released earlier or designated a criminal suspect.
    Más Menos
    13 m
  • The internment of protected persons and the Fourth Geneva Convention

    The internment of protected persons and the Fourth Geneva Convention
    May 16 2024
    The Fourth Geneva Convention, adopted 75 years ago, was the first humanitarian law convention dedicated to humanitarian protections for civilians during armed conflict. Amongst its numerous protective rules, it provides the main rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) governing the exceptional practice of internment of protected persons – i.e. the detention of such persons for security reasons during international armed conflict. In this post, and in the lead up to the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions later this year, ICRC Legal Adviser Mikhail Orkin introduces a new series on how the rules governing the grounds and procedures for the internment of protected persons – the primary source for which is the Fourth Convention – have been interpreted, presenting a range of questions and challenges that states have faced in implementing these rules.
    Más Menos
    15 m