scholarly journals ICRC policy paper on immigration detention

2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (904) ◽  
pp. 359-363

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has worked on behalf of detained irregular migrants for many years as part of its activities for detainee populations in general, but has only recently started implementing specific programmes for detained migrants in countries of transit and destination. The ICRC visits detained migrants in both criminal and dedicated immigration detention facilities. During these visits, as with all detainees, the ICRC assesses whether detained migrants are treated humanely, held in conditions that preserve their dignity and afforded due process of law. The ICRC also evaluates whether they are able to maintain contact with the outside world, such as with their families and consular authorities, if they wish to do so. As part of its dialogue with the authorities, the ICRC also raises protection issues related to return to ensure that the authorities fulfil their obligations under relevant international law – in particular with respect to the principle of non-refoulement.

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1217-1242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm MacLaren ◽  
Felix Schwendimann

On 17 March 2005, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, presented a study (hereinafter “the Study”) of customary international humanitarian law (IHL). A decade earlier, the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent had mandated the ICRC to “prepare […] a report on customary rules of IHL applicable in international [IAC] and non-international armed conflicts [NIAC], and to circulate the report to States and competent international bodies.” The Study's objective was to capture a “photograph” of the existing, hitherto unwritten rules that make up customary IHL. Comprehensive, high-level research into customary IHL followed; the end result of which is undeniably a remarkable feat and a significant contribution to scholarship and debate in this area of international law.


1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (111) ◽  
pp. 326-326

At its plenary session on 14 May 1970, the International Committee of the Red Cross elected Mr. Victor H. Umbricht as a new member.Mr. Umbricht was born at Untersiggenthal in the canton of Aargau in 1915. After studying at various universities he obtained a doctorate in international law. He was a member of the Tribunal of Baden and then, from 1941 to 1953, was in the Swiss diplomatic service. He subsequently became assistant director of operations at the World Bank, Washington, for Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 1957 he was appointed Director of the Federal Administration of Finances in Bern.


1966 ◽  
Vol 6 (64) ◽  
pp. 343-361
Author(s):  
E. Evrard

The International Committee of the Red Cross is aware that international law gives inadequate protection to aircraft used for medical evacuation. It considers that the subject is one which calls for further study and therefore takes pleasure in reproducing in the following pages a translation of important extracts of a recent article on legal protection for aircraft used as air-ambulances in time of war. This article is of particular interest, coming from Dr. Evrard who, being a flyer, can look at the problem from a practical as well as a legal point of view.


2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (887) ◽  
pp. 1125-1134 ◽  

With the globalisation of market economies, business has become an increasingly prominent actor in international relations. It is also increasingly present in situations of armed conflict. On the one hand, companies operating in volatile environments are exposed to violence and the consequences of armed conflicts. On the other hand, some of their conduct in armed conflict may lead to violations of the law.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) engages with the private sector on humanitarian issues, with the aim of ensuring compliance or clarifying the obligations that business actors have under international humanitarian law (IHL) and encouraging them to comply with the commitments they have undertaken under various international initiatives to respect IHL and human rights law.In times of conflict, IHL spells out certain responsibilities and rights for all parties involved. Knowledge of the relevant rules of IHL is therefore critical for local and international businesses operating in volatile contexts. In this Q&A section, Philip Spoerri, ICRC Director for International Law and Cooperation, gives an overview of the rules applicable to business actors in situations of conflict, and discusses some of the ICRC's engagement with business actors.Philip Spoerri began his career with the ICRC in 1994. Following a first assignment in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, he went on to be based in Kuwait, Yemen, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Geneva, he headed the legal advisers to the Department of Operations. He returned to Afghanistan as head of the ICRC delegation there from 2004 to 2006, when he took up his current position. Before joining the ICRC, he worked as a lawyer in a private firm in Munich. He holds a PhD in law from Bielefeld University and has also studied at the universities of Göttingen, Geneva, and Munich.


2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (895-896) ◽  
pp. 817-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Harroff-Tavel

AbstractIn a globalizing world marked by geopolitical upheaval, unprecedented threats to human security, new forms of violence and technological revolutions, particularly in the area of information technology, it is no simple task to raise awareness of international humanitarian law (IHL) applicable to armed conflict and ensure that warring parties comply with this body of law. This article traces the history of the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) work in promoting IHL from 1864 to the present, juxtaposing this history with important events in international relations and with the organization's (sometimes traumatizing) experiences that ultimately gave rise to innovative programmes. The article summarizes lively debates that took place at the ICRC around such topics as the place of ethics in the promotion of IHL, respect for cultural diversity in the various methods used to promote this body of law, and how much attention should be devoted to youth – as well as the most effective way to do so. The author concludes by sharing her personal views on the best way to promote IHL in the future by drawing on the lessons of the past.


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-81
Author(s):  
Alberto Soria Jiménez

SUMMARY Judgment 107/1992 of the Spanish Constitutional Court has not only cleared up any possible doubts about the alleged unconstitutionality of State immunities and it has discarded any possible contradictions that these immunities might have with art. 24.1 of the Spanish Constitution.. Judgment 107/1992 has also directly linked the right to due process of law with the correct jurisdictional application of the international rules to which art. 21.2 of the LOPJ remits. The Constitutional Court feels that extending immunity from enforcement to foreign State property beyond the provisions of Public International Law violates the right to due process because it limits the right to enforcement of judgments without any legal support. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court points out that when the rules of Public International Law impose absolute immunity from enforcement, the aforementioned right is not violated. That in these cases, this right might be guaranteed by diplomatic protection or, as a last resort, by an assumption by the forum State of its duty to satisfy judicially mandated obligations when the absence of enforcement of these might imply undue sacrifice for an individual contrary to the principle of equality before public burdens. Therefore it seems wise for the Spanish State to establish some procedure which would prevent the recognition of immunity would also be highly recommendable for Spain to enact a statute containing a list of exceptions to State immunity as soon as possible. It is the executive branch, therefore, that should resolve this situation by proposing a bill on this issue and perhaps, as a complementary measure, by ratifying the European Convention on State Immunity.


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