{"id":239275,"date":"2023-07-17T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=239275"},"modified":"2023-07-14T05:46:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T04:46:53","slug":"stronger-respect-for-international-humanitarian-law-ngo-action-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/stronger-respect-for-international-humanitarian-law-ngo-action-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Stronger Respect for International Humanitarian Law: NGO Action Needed!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

14 Jul 2023<\/em> – The carnage in the Ukraine armed conflict and the continued violent actions by ethnic militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo have highlighted the fact that the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are not bedside reading for many people, even those engaged in war.\u00a0 There are warlords whose only claim to the charisma of leadership is the ruthlessness with which they wield a gun.<\/p>\n

Since the adoption of the First Geneva Convention on International Humanitarian Law in 1864, the nature of armed conflicts has changed considerably, especially\u00a0 in the increased number of conflicts within a State.\u00a0 It is currently estimated that there are 120 ethnic militias active in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, often responsible for cruel and degrading treatment of civilians.<\/p>\n

I had participated in an International Committee of the Red Cross study group during the Nigeria\/Biafra War (1967-1970).\u00a0 The aim of the study group was to see if there were traditional African values and practices which could be relied upon for better treatment of war prisoners and civilians.\u00a0 There were no such practices.\u00a0 Traditionally, men were killed, and women divided among the victors.\u00a0 The only exceptions were conflicts within a clan. In clan conflicts, there were techniques of symbolic or material restitution and ceremonies of reconciliation.\u00a0 Thus our study group had recommended the need for clear universal standards which can be applied in all cultures and in all types of conflicts. However, the cultural situation needs to be taken into consideration.\u00a0 I had helped in writing a handbook on International Humanitarian Law to be used in Africa.\u00a0 The handbook was published by the Henri Dunant Institute in Geneva.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there are always problems in the application of International Humanitarian Law.\u00a0 Many people do not know that it exists and that they are bound by its norms.\u00a0 Thus there is a need for greater dissemination of information through education and training\u00a0 to create a climate conducive to the observation of internationally recognized norms.\u00a0 Such educational and training activities can be usefully undertaken by non-governmental organizations – an urgent need.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues<\/em>, and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Jul 2023 – The carnage in Ukraine and the violent actions by ethnic militias in the DRC have highlighted that the Geneva Conventions are not bedside reading for those engaged in war.\u00a0 There are warlords whose only claim to the charisma of leadership is the ruthlessness with which they wield a gun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":194731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1348,629,124],"class_list":["post-239275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-geneva-conventions","tag-international-law","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239279,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239275\/revisions\/239279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}