scholarly journals The Rights of the Families of Missing Persons: Going Beyond International Humanitarian Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Grażyna Baranowska
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Missing Persons ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
Core Questions

The main aim of the article is to test how states implement international humanitarian law (IHL) with regard to the families of missing persons. The article shows relevant IHL shortcomings and compares them with rules applicable in cases of enforced disappearance. The national legislation collected in the section titled ‘The Missing and Their Families’ of the National Implementation Database of the International Committee of the Red Cross is then examined. The analysis addresses three core questions that are particularly relevant for families of missing persons: (1) Who is considered a missing person under each law? Approaching this question allows the testing of whether states follow the understanding of ‘missing persons’ under IHL treaty law. The second and third questions address two issues that are crucial for families of missing persons that are not addressed in IHL: (2) How is the legal status of the missing person regulated? (3) Are family members provided with measures of reparation and/or assistance? This approach reveals that states rarely apply the IHL understanding of ‘missing persons’ and predominantly exceed IHL by addressing some of the identified shortcomings. It further shows that states provide families of missing persons either with reparation measures – in cases of human rights violations – or, less often, with measures of assistance in post-conflict situations.

scholarly journals Promoting compliance of private security and military companies with international humanitarian law

2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (863) ◽  
pp. 613-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Perrin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Private Security ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations

AbstractPrivate security and military companies have become a ubiquitous part of modern armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. Their diverse clients include governments in the developed and developing world alike, non-state belligerents, international corporations, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, and private individuals. The implications of this proliferation of private security and military companies for international humanitarian law and human rights are only beginning to be appreciated, as potential violations and misconduct by their employees have come to light in Iraq and Afghanistan. The author critically examines the theoretical risks posed by private military and security company activity with respect to violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, together with the incentives that these companies have to comply with those norms. Empirical evidence is also presented to expand on this theoretical framework. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the author draws on law, international relations theory, criminology, economics, corporate strategy and political economy, as well as psychology and sociology, to analyse the competing “risk-factors” and “compliance levers” that interact at each level of private military and security company activity to enhance or reduce the likelihood of a violation occurring. These findings are then applied by the author to assess emergent measures to deal with private security and military companies outside the legal sphere, including a programme of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the advent of the International Peace Operations Association.

Dissemination in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Lessons learned

1997 ◽  
Vol 37 (319) ◽  
pp. 409-420
Author(s):  
Norman Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Relevant Reference ◽  
Present Context

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been assisting the victims of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia since June 1991. Six years on, its delegates are still active in the region, addressing the lasting consequences of the conflict, but as the situation has evolved so has the nature of their work. This is particularly true of dissemination, which began as a concerted effort to promote greater understanding of international humanitarian law and the ICRC's role and mandate, but which has now been redirected towards meeting the needs of the post-conflict environment. This paper sets out to describe and analyse the development of dissemination in the present context. Though the ICRC's activities during the conflict were predominantly in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there are similar dissemination initiatives in both these areas, this paper focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Where relevant, reference may be made to dissemination activities in other parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Part IV The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 39 The International Committee of the Red Cross: Legal Status, Privileges, and Immunities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavoyer Jean-Philippe ◽  
Vité Sylvain
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
International Status ◽  
Independent Organization

This chapter offers a brief description of the origin, mandate, and legal status of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC is an impartial, neutral, and independent organization that was founded in 1863. It endeavours to promote compliance with international humanitarian law by all parties to armed conflicts. It also seeks to provide protection and assistance to victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. Its activities are based on a mandate received from the community of States. In order to support the efficient fulfilment of its mandate, the ICRC was also recognized international status and was granted privileges and immunities under both international and domestic law.

The work of Mexico's Interministerial Committee on International Humanitarian Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (895-896) ◽  
pp. 1049-1059
Author(s):  
Mariana Salazar Albornoz
Keyword(s):  
Executive Branch ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
National Implementation

AbstractIn the six years since it was created, the Comisión Intersecretarial de Derecho Internacional Humanitario de México, Mexico's Interministerial Committee on International Humanitarian Law, has become one of the region's most active national bodies for the implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL). Its achievements are the result of the efforts of the federal executive branch agencies that form and participate in the Committee, as well as of the support that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Mexican Red Cross have provided to facilitate its work. In this article, the author describes the structure and operation of the Committee, as well as the activities it has carried out in fulfilling its mandate to disseminate and promote respect for IHL rules, principles and institutions and further the national implementation of IHL.

Visits by human rights mechanisms as a means of greater protection for persons deprived of their liberty

2005 ◽  
Vol 87 (857) ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Edouard Delaplace ◽  
Matt Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Institutional Complementarity ◽  
Degrading Treatment

AbstractAlthough international humanitarian law and human rights law were originally intended to operate in different areas of competence, thirty years of visits by human rights mechanisms to places of detention in parallel with visits made by the International Committee of the Red Cross have shown that they are clearly complementary in several respects. First, there is complementarity in terms of action, in that different but not competitive visits are made. Secondly, through the formulation of increasingly precise legal rules there is complementarity in codification. Lastly, there is institutional complementarity through cooperation between the respective bodies. The result is broader and above all more effective protection for detainees — whatever the legal status assigned to them — which, if it cannot entirely eliminate the possibility of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, can at least help to prevent and remedy such abuses.

The ICRC Library goes digital

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Reference Library ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past

The ICRC Library is home to unique collections retracing the parallel development of humanitarian action and law during the past 150+ years. With the core of these collections now digitized, this reference library on international humanitarian law (IHL) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a resource available to all, anytime, anywhere.

Bridging the Accountability Gap

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-597
Author(s):  
Hannes Jöbstl
Keyword(s):  
War Crimes ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Penal Sanctions ◽  
Accountability Gap ◽  
Alternative Solutions

Abstract During non-international armed conflict, war crimes often go unpunished in areas where state authorities are unable to enforce the law. While states are under a customary law obligation to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed on their territory or by their nationals, the Customary International Humanitarian Law Study of the International Committee of the Red Cross has not found that this obligation extends to armed non-state actors (ANSAs). Nevertheless, command responsibility requires the individual commander to punish their forces in case war crimes have been committed and a growing amount of state practice demanding similar commitments — both legally and politically — from these actors as such can be observed over the past two decades. Indeed, ANSAs routinely impose penal sanctions onto their subordinates and often establish judicial structures in order to do so. This article argues that whereas ANSAs should be under some form of obligation to ensure accountability, alternative solutions to makeshift courts and penal proceedings might be better suited to prevent impunity and maintain fair trial guarantees.

scholarly journals The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Criminal Court: Turning international humanitarian law into a two-headed snake?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Fernanda García Pinto
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Critical Approach

Abstract The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Criminal Court are two very different entities that simultaneously apply international humanitarian law but do so after their own perspectives. This article proposes a cautious yet critical approach to some of their divergent interpretations (conflict classification, the difference between direct and active participation in hostilities, intra-party sexual and gender-based violence, and the notion of attack) and examines how the broader legal system copes with these points of divergence. The analysis considers the institutional characteristics of these two organizations and the pluralistic nature of international humanitarian law as well as its dynamic rapport with international criminal law in order to highlight the versatility needed to face the challenges posed by contemporary armed conflicts.

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