IHL 2.0: Is There a Role for Social Media in Monitoring and Enforcement?

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Herzberg ◽  
Gerald M Steinberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Monitoring And Enforcement ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
The Impact

This article will examine the opportunities and limitations of using social media in the execution of legal duties relating to the monitoring and enforcement of IHL. The article will first provide an overview of social media. Next, it will briefly summarise the normative framework of IHL as well as the legal duties of the primary actors and promoters of IHL (for example, states, the UN, NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross and courts) to monitor and enforce these rules. The article will then address specific legal obligations relating to IHL monitoring and enforcement and the impact of social media on meeting these requirements.Throughout, the article will use case studies from several conflict zones, including Sudan, Uganda, Mexico, Somalia, Gaza and Libya. The article will conclude that social media can play a critical role in promoting IHL education, and monitoring for potential violations. The benefits of this technology, however, are less clear for carrying out legal obligations related to the enforcement of IHL, such as fact-finding, arrest and prosecution. It is essential, therefore, that clear guidelines for utilising this quickly evolving technology, particularly in official fact-finding and judicial frameworks, be established.

scholarly journals COVID-19 as an “Infodemic” in Public Health: Critical Role of the Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debanjan Banerjee ◽  
K. S. Meena
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Impact

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has emerged as a significant and global public health crisis. Besides the rising number of cases and fatalities, the outbreak has also affected economies, employment and policies alike. As billions are being isolated at their homes to contain the infection, the uncertainty gives rise to mass hysteria and panic. Amidst this, there has been a hidden epidemic of “information” that makes COVID-19 stand out as a “digital infodemic” from the earlier outbreaks. Repeated and detailed content about the virus, geographical statistics, and multiple sources of information can all lead to chronic stress and confusion at times of crisis. Added to this is the plethora of misinformation, rumor and conspiracy theories circulating every day. With increased digitalization, media penetration has increased with a more significant number of people aiding in the “information pollution.” In this article, we glance at the unique evolution of COVID-19 as an “infodemic” in the hands of social media and the impact it had on its spread and public reaction. We then look at the ways forward in which the role of social media (as well as other digital platforms) can be integrated into social and public health, for a better symbiosis, “digital balance” and pandemic preparedness for the ongoing crisis and the future.

The International Committee of the Red Widget? The Diversity Debate and International Humanitarian Law

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 614-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Provost
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
The Impact

This article asserts there has been a lack of attention to the impact of cultural diversity within the field of international humanitarian law. Discussions surrounding culture in international humanitarian law have nearly always avoided the central issue of cultural particularism. This has been so in relation to the debate surrounding the emblem, in general surveys of humanitarian law, and in discussions of the laws of war in distinct legal and cultural traditions. The emblems debate, in particular, signals the elusiveness of rigid universality within international humanitarian law. Five elements are suggested to explain the resistance of humanitarian law to contagion by the cultural relativism debate in human rights: the nature of human rights, the distinct normative frameworks of human rights and humanitarian law, the unified conventional basis of humanitarian law, the very broad participation in the humanitarian regime, and the unique role of the International Committee of the Red Cross. While these reasons might explain the fact that the relativism debate in human rights did not readily transfer to humanitarian law, they offer no substantive basis for immunity for humanitarian law to the challenges posed by cultural diversity. Ultimately, the article proposes a legal pluralist approach that recognizes the role of actors in the cultural process of norm-creation. Given the continued violation of the laws of war, the author suggests a need to open the door to cultural diversity in order to generate greater compliance. Without cultural legitimacy, there is a danger that humanitarian law aspires to self-defeating universalism.

scholarly journals Humanitarian behavior across high-/low-context cultures: a comparative analysis between Switzerland and Colombia

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid Alizadeh Afrouzi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
Communication Context ◽  
Personal Context ◽  
Context Theory

AbstractThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) attempts constantly to motivate its audience through social media to adopt humanitarian attitudes and behaviors. Owing to its multicultural audience, the results of this communicative attempt varies from region to region. In this context, in order to optimize the humanitarian communication outcome, it is of high importance to investigate the mediating role of culture. Drawing on Hall’s context theory, this comparative survey-based study tries to analyze the influence of personal context culture on humanitarian behavior intention in a low-context-culture country (Switzerland) and a high-context-culture country (Colombia). The results indicated that once exposed to implicit social media posts of the ICRC, the Colombian showed slightly higher behavior intention compared to the Swiss and participants’ personal context-culture score fully accounted for this difference. This study is also an empirical examination of Hall’s context theory in a humanitarian communication context.

scholarly journals What price freedom? Global reporting trends and journalistic integrity

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-20
Author(s):  
Chris Cramer
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Keynote Speech ◽  
The University ◽  
Sydney Australia

Commentary: On 18 May 2009, the ABC’s Ultimo Centre in Sydney, Australia, and on May 22, Massey University’s Wellington campus in New Zealand were host to twin conferences on war reporting.  Jointly organised by the global aid organisation International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Australian Centre of Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Massey’s School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, the conferences were attended and contributed to by senior international and national news media people—including many who had themselves reported wars—as well as humanitarian, legal and military representatives.  The conferences addressed: the role and responsibilities of the journalist in reporting conflict; media, humanitarian and military relationships; an apparent increasing targeting of journalists in conflict zones; and the application of international humanitarian law in times of conflict. The following address by Chris Cramer was the keynote speech at both conferences.

The Impact of Individuals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asher Orkaby
Keyword(s):  
Southern Baptist ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Rural Village ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
South Arabia ◽  
Domestic Power ◽  
Tribal Areas ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

No single foreign or domestic power was able to exercise control over events in Yemen, which created an opportunity for many to have a lasting presence in South Arabia. Three individuals, in particular, made inroads in Yemen that impacted the course of the civil war and the future of the country: Bruce Condé, an eclectic American philatelist, became postmaster general of Imam al-Badr’s tribal areas and singlehandedly brought tribal nonstate actors a level of international legitimacy. André Rochat brought the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Yemen for the first time and played an important role in royalist healthcare and the adoption of Geneva Conventions in Yemen. Dr. James Young led a group of Southern Baptist missionaries in founding a modern Western hospital in the rural village of Jibla, amidst one of the most religiously conservative societies in the world.

The role of health-related data in promoting the security of health care in armed conflict and other emergencies

2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (889) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Coupland
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Health Care Personnel ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact

AbstractHealth-related data provide the basis of policy in many domains. By using a methodology specifically designed to gather data about any form of violence and its impact, violence affecting health-care personnel, health-care facilities, and the wounded and sick in these facilities can be quantified on an objective basis. The impact of this form of violence and its accompanying insecurity goes beyond those directly affected to the many who are ultimately denied health care. Reliable data about both the violence affecting health-care personnel and facilities and the ‘knock-on’ effects of this violence on the health of many others have a critical role to play in influencing the policies of all stakeholders, including governments, in favour of greater security of effective and impartial health care in armed conflict and other emergencies. The International Committee of the Red Cross has undertaken a study that attempts to understand on a global basis the nature and impact of the many different kinds of violence affecting health care.

scholarly journals The Dangers of ‘Going Native’: George Montandon in Siberia and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1919–1922

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESCA PIANA
Keyword(s):  
Ground Level ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
The One ◽  
First World

AbstractThis article focuses on humanitarians by studying the interactions between the International Committee of the Red Cross and one of his delegates, George Montandon, between 1919 and 1922. Montandon was charged with a fact-finding mission in Siberia that set the basis for larger repatriation plans on behalf of prisoners of war from the Central Powers. This article explores the nature and circulation of expertise – formal and informal – in connection with Montandon's private and professional life before the mission, during the mission itself and once the mission was over. Being a delegate for the ICRC was not a profession but rather a break from established professions as doctors, military officers and scholars in Switzerland. However, experts associated with the work of the Geneva organisation at the headquarters and at the ground level brought a vast set of skills to international humanitarianism. Through a spectrum of transnational connections and networks, at the end of the First World War the ICRC experienced processes of specialisation and standardisation of tasks which had already started in wartime. This article argues that the impulse towards an increasing professionalisation of humanitarianism ‘clashed’ with the ambiguities of the ICRC's mandate, on the one hand, and the tensions between the agency of individual relief workers and the institutions they represented, on the other.

Post-Tsunami Medical Care: Health Problems Encountered in the International Committee of the Red Cross Hospital in Banda Aceh, Indonesia

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (S1) ◽  
pp. S1-S7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda J. Redwood-Campbell ◽  
Louis Riddez
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Medical Problems ◽  
Field Hospital ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Medical Needs ◽  
Banda Aceh

AbstractIntroduction:When the Tsunami struck Asia on 26 December 2004, Aceh, Indonesia suffered more damage than did any other region. After the Tsunami, many humanitarian organizations provided aid in Aceh. For example, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), along with the Indonesian and Norwegian Red Cross opened a field hospital in Banda Aceh on 16 January 2005. This study describes the illnesses seen in the out-patient department/casualty department (OPD/CD) of the ICRC hospital nine weeks after the Tsunami. It describes the percentage of people seen for problems directly related to the Tsunami, and includes a basic screening for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Methods:A prospective, five-day study was performed from 01–05 March 2005. Patients registering in the ICRC field hospital in Banda Aceh were considered for the study. Data collected included: (1) age; (2) gender; (3) diagnosis in the OPD/CD; and (4) whether or not the problem was related directly to the Tsunami. Seven basic questions were asked to screen for depression and PTSD symptoms.Results:Twelve percent of the problems seen in the OPD/CD nine weeks after the Tsunami still were related directly to the Tsunami. Sixty-three percent of patients in the study were male. The medical problems included: (1) urological (19%); (2) digestive (16%); (3) respiratory (12%); and (4) musculoskeletal (12%). Although <2% of patients were diagnosed with a mental health problem, 24% had at least four or more of the seven depression/PTSD symptoms addressed in the study.Conclusions:Post-earthquake and post-tsunami health problems and medical needs differ from those found in conflict zones. After the Tsunami, both surgical and primary healthcare teams were needed. Many problems were chronic medical problems, which may be indicative of the lack of healthcare infrastructure before the Tsunami. The findings suggest that mental health issues must be taken into consideration for future planning. The ethical issues of performing research in complex emergencies also need further development at the international level.

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