Like other international organizations, the European Union has progressively included an «international humanitarian law» dimension in the policies it intends to pursue in its international relations. Initially focused on human rights, the regional European organization has taken the convergence between the various legal instruments for the protection of the individual into account. Today it no longer regards international humanitarian law as an alternative, hut as a useful complement to be applied within its foreign and common security policy. At first concentrated in its basic policy statement that law now features in all legal instruments at the organization's disposal to act in accordance with its international vocation. This new reference thus highlights the European Union's role not only in disseminating the Geneva Conventions and Protocols and promoting respect for them, but also in ensuring that the rules of international humanitarian law progress and become adapted to new forms of conflict.

It is commonly accepted that education in human rights may be one of the most effective tools in promoting the observance of those rights. Those whose profession entails the exercise of power over others have an obvious need to know the limits of their power and members of the armed forces represent just such a group. Their acts engage the responsibility of their State under human rights treaties, wherever those acts are committed. Some instruction in human rights law, particularly non-derogable rights, is therefore necessary but the body of rules which imposes the greatest prohibitions and restraints on the conduct of armed forces is humanitarian law. That term is used here as including both “The Hague law”, which imposes limits on the means and methods of warfare, and “Geneva law”, which seeks to protect certain victims of the conflict, such as the wounded and sick in the field, the wounded, sick and shipwrecked at sea, prisoners of war and civilians living under belligerent occupation. The latter body of rules was updated in 1977 by the addition of two Protocols which extended the range of protection by incorporating elements of “The Hague law”. The 1949 Geneva Conventions have been ratified by 166 States and Hague Convention IV, with which we shall principally be dealing, was held by the Nuremberg Tribunal to represent customary international law. To all intents and purposes then, every State is bound by the two bodies of rules. In addition, the 1977 Protocols are binding on those States which have ratified them.

In Somalia, a group of young actors, musicians and scriptwriters are working on a play which is to be produced, filmed and distributed in the form of a video throughout the country. One scene shows a young militiaman boasting of how he has terrorized the population and the reaction of the woman he loves. She evokes the suffering caused by his conduct and refuses to marry a man who has disregarded the code of honour of his clan. This creative work contains a message for young militiamen about the effect of unbridled violence on both its victims and its perpetrators.

Sous ce titre, le Dr Mohamed Abdallah Draz, professeur à l'Université El Azhar au Caire, a publié, dans la « Revue égyptienne de droit international», une étude d'un intérêt soutenu, nourrie d'abondantes citations, où il s'efforce de rechercher les principes fondamentaux du droit international public dans le Coran et la Tradition prophétique, textes sacrés dont il nous révèle utilement toutes les pensées de haute sagesse et les réserves spirituelles.

One of the main objectives of International Conferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which bring together Red Cross and Red Crescent institutions and the States party to the Geneva Conventions, is to promote respect for international humanitarian law during armed conflicts.

The role normally played by monuments in conflict is that of passive and innocent observers, occasionally drawn into the fighting through their locations. In the Syrian conflict, monuments have been more deliberately used as pawns, as ideological weapons and as favoured strongpoints for combatants. The resulting damage to historical sites, particularly to the monumental centres of Aleppo and Palmyra, has been considerable. However, damage to heritage presents a small proportion of the harm compared to the destruction of civilian housing and facilities throughout the country and should not distract us from the irreplaceable loss of innocent life in the fighting. The country's eventual recovery will require the return of refugees to their devastated communities, a precondition for any effort to restore the country's rich monumental heritage.

The applicability of international humanitarian law (IHL) to United Nations (UN) forces has long generated discussion. When peacekeepers have become engaged in hostilities of such a nature as to trigger the application of IHL (either via acts in self-defence, or in the course of carrying out a mandate as authorised by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations), questions have arisen as to whether they should be equally subject to the rules of IHL. Such questions arise as UN peacekeeping forces act on behalf of the international community and thus have a ‘just cause’, so to speak, to use force. Despite these questions, however, it now appears well settled that the distinction between jus ad bellum (the right to use force under public international law) and jus in bello (the law governing the conduct of hostilities) should be maintained, and that IHL applies in respect of UN peacekeeping operations whenever the conditions for its application are met. That said, questions regarding the conditions for the application of IHL, as well as its scope of application, continue to be relevant, particularly at a time when the Security Council is tasking UN operations with increasingly robust mandates.

Entre 1927 et aujourd'hui, un demi siècle s'est écoulé. Pendant ce temps, l'Ordre s'est efforcé de s'adapter à l'évolution de la vie internationale et du droit des gens. En effet, les expériences faites lors de la première guerre mondiale oú il a pu apporter son aide aux blessés, malades, prisonniers et réfugiés, grêce à ses unités sanitaires, ses ambulances, ses trains, ses aéronefs, ses bateaux, lui ont permis de mettre son appareil de travail au niveau des besoins nouveaux. D'autre part, le dialogue intervenu entre lui et l'Eglise catholique au milieu du siècle s'est conclu par l'adoption de la formule émise par la Commission cardinalice suivant laquelle le Saint-Siège reconnaît la Souveraineté fonctionnelle de l'Ordre dans le domaine de son activité internationale humanitaire. Enfin, le nombre accru de ses membres, qui se recrutent aujourd'hui tout particulièrement parmi les personnalités qui, à la fois, pratiquent la vie spirituelle et sont proches des milieux ministériels, offre à l'Ordre une remarquable réserve d'hommes de pensée et d'action mobilisables en cas de nécessité.

It is known that the XXIst International Conference of the Red Cross voted a resolution (No. XVII) relative to the protection of the victims of non-international armed conflicts and by which it “asks the ICRC to devote special attention to this problem within the framework of the more general studies it has started to develop humanitarian law”. However, before the meeting at Istanbul, the author of the following article had already written a study on the subject entitled “Der Bürgerkrieg”, which is of topical interest and of which we now give extracts at some length in our own translation (Ed.).

Many States have in the course of their history faced internal tension and strife, sometimes so serious as to threaten their fundamental interests. These situations, characterized as they are by acts of revolt and violence committed by more or less organized groups fighting either the authorities or amongst themselves, are distinct from those termed non-international armed conflicts, in which the violence is more intense. In order to bring these internal confrontations to an end and restore order, the authorities frequently make massive use of police force or even the armed forces. The inevitable result is a weakening of the rule of law, marked by serious, large-scale human rights violations causing widespread suffering among the population.

In the early hours of 17 December 1996, six delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross were assassinated in a brutal attack by gunmen at the ICRC hospital in Novye Atagi, near Grozny.

In late summer 1996, the ICRC had decided to open a field hospital in Chechnya because the main hospitals in Grozny had been seriously damaged, thus leaving large numbers of war-wounded without proper care.

Dans le numéro d'août 1957 de la Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge a paru une étude consacrée aux réserves aux Conventions de Genève de 1949 pour la protection des victimes de la guerre. A cette époque, le nombre des Etats liés par les Conventions de Genève s'élevait à 66, et 18 d'entre eux avaient assorti leur participation de réserves. En 1965, une étude supplémental sur le même sujet a paru dans le numéro du mois de juillet de la même revue. A cette date, le nombre des Etats liés par les Conventions de Geneve de 1949 avait passé à 106, et le nombre de ceux qui avaient exprimé des réserves était de 20.

L'étude Origines du comportement dans la guerre a pour objectif de contribuer à améliorer les politiques et les stratégies de communication du Comité International de la Croix-Rouge (CICR), dans le but de prévenir efficacement les violations du droit international humanitaire (DIH). Cet objectif s'articule autour d'une double interrogation:

a) Quels sont les facteurs qui influencent de manière décisive le comportement des combattants en situation de respecter ou de violer le DIH ?

b) Y a-t-il adéquation entre les stratégies de prévention développées par le CICR et les réponses apportées à la question ci-dessus ?

This article analyses problems with which the Republic of Croatia, as a country in transition, has to contend during war crimes proceedings. A major characteristic of the recent wars waged on the territory of the former Yugoslavia is that war crimes were committed, though on a different scale, by all parties involved, irrespective of the political and other motives that prompted them to engage in armed conflict. Political unwillingness is the principal reason why national courts, including those in the Republic of Croatia, did not prosecute war crimes in accordance with internationally acceptable standards. The international community responded by setting up the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the main objectives of which are to establish justice, render justice to victims and determine the historical truth. Implicitly, despite political and other opposition to its work, the ICTY is helping to define legal and ethical standards appropriate for a democratic society in the countries established on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This is particularly important for the reason that all these countries aspire to membership of the European Union. The work of the ICTY, as well as proceedings before domestic courts, is therefore an important legal, political and moral catalyst on their way towards accession to the European Union. This is fully confirmed by the example of the Republic of Croatia.

Around 50 million people across the world are affected by urban warfare. When conflict occurs in cities, the natural environment has historically been relegated to an afterthought, but both the immediate and long-term environmental consequences of urban warfare are serious. This article looks at actions that can be taken to protect the natural environment – and through this, the population – against the effects of urban warfare when fighting in urban areas. It is intended to be a part of the conversation about what parties to armed conflict can and should do to give effect to their legal obligations under international humanitarian law and international law more broadly, with a specific focus on the natural environment when fighting in urban areas.

The purpose of this article is to suggest some historical milestones for a retrospective reflection on the photographic archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This collection is little used by researchers, although the 120,000 photographs which it contains have helped to forge the symbolism and identity of the institution and to document its operations in accordance with a memory preservation policy which gradually emerged in the course of the 20th century. The photographs shown in this article are divided into three main themes (the ICRC delegate, the context of action, suffering and the victims), in order to make it easier to discuss the key aspects of this tremendous visual heritage which looks at humanitarian action, its protagonists and its beneficiaries from an anthropological and ethnological point of view.