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27 April 2023
Launched last year, our new IHL Expert Pool (IHL-EP) began – through a series of activities carried out in 2022 – to position itself as a flexible tool that human rights mechanisms can rely on to increase their international humanitarian law (IHL) knowledge and to apply IHL in their work.
‘While more time is needed to deploy this new mechanism’s full potential, it has already contributed in varied and impactful ways to the implementation of IHL by regional and international human rights mechanisms’ explains Dr Erica Harper, Head of Research and Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy.
‘The granting of leave by the European Court of Human Rights to intervene as a third party in the case Netherlands and Ukraine v. Russia and the convening of an interdisciplinary expert meeting on the use of open-source information to prosecute and investigate international crimes are just two examples of this impact’ she adds.
UN Photo / Jean Marc Ferré>
During its first year, the IHL-EP provided IHL advice and inputs to various United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms – on both a solicited and unsolicited basis – on key issues like starvation during armed conflicts, the use of mercenaries from the standpoint of IHL, the (mis)use of IHL in counter-terrorism operations, and new technologies and enforced disappearances.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri solicited advice from the IHL-EP in the preparation of his report on ‘Conflict and the right to food’. Dr Rogier Bartels (University of Amsterdam) provided indications on several topics, including the interplay between IHL and the right to food, the criminalization of starvation, the resort to food as a weapon in times of armed conflict, and the prospects for corporate liability.
ICRC
ICRC
ICRC
To prepare the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries’ country visit to Armenia – which took place in late February 2023 – the IHL-EP responded to a call for inputs by submitting a paper on the use of mercenaries, or mercenary-related activities, from the standpoint of IHL and broader public international law. After outlining applicable legal norms to be found in IHL and in the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, Ilya Nuzov (International Federation for Human Rights and Paris Institute of Political Sciences) offered a detailed analysis of Armenia’s domestic law and practice relating to mercenaries and provided a set of conclusions and recommendations.
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In the perspective of the first independent global study on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on civil society and civic space (scheduled for 2023), the IHL-EP also participated in a call for inputs by the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights Dr Fionnuala Ni Aolain. Dr Pavle Kilibarda and Michael Moncrieff (University of Geneva) provided comments on the lack of transparent, empirical decision-making and the over-extension and misuse of IHL in counter-terrorism operations. The submission notably addresses critical aspects in the definition and articulation of counter-terrorism policies (including the vagueness of policy goals and civil society’s absence from the evaluation and oversight of counter-terrorism), as well as the over-classification of situations of violence involving armed non-State actors and the over-reliance on the conduct of hostilities paradigm to justify extra-territorial lethal targeting.
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In the context of the UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances’ preparation of a thematic study on new technologies and enforced disappearances, the IHL-EP submitted a paper prepared by Edward Millett and Dr Francesco Romani (Geneva Academy) that analyses the benefits and the risks that open-source information (OSI) poses in relation to enforced disappearances. Relying on available practice and case studies, the submission points to the many ways in which OSI has impacted this field in terms of fostering accountability but also facilitating the search of the disappeared, while also making practical recommendations on how to address the risks of unintended consequences that flow from deploying OSI capabilities.
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ICRC
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Finally, Dr Francesco Romani, our Research Fellow in charge of the IHL-EP, also participated in an experts’ consultation convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture for the compilation of her report on the duty to investigate crimes of torture in national law and practice.
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Composed of an ever-expanding list of thematically and geographically representative experts in the field of IHL, the IHL-EP – coordinated by our Research Fellow Dr Francesco Romani – works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work, by providing expert advice on priority IHL themes on a solicited and non-solicited basis.
Geneva Academy
To kick-start the activities of the 'IHL in Focus' project and refine its approach, a two-day expert meeting of representative practitioners and scholars from different disciplines was convened.
Kyryl Savin/Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Discover our resources and what our experts say about the situation in Ukraine, with regular updates to include new events, articles and comments!
OUP
In this book launch our Swiss IHL Chair, Professor Marco Roscini, will discuss the main findings of his new book on the principle of non-intervention with leading experts.
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Participants in this training course, made of two modules, will examine the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights and the environment, familiarizing themselves with the respective implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Adobe
This training course will examine how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have been utilized to advance the concept of business respect for human rights throughout the UN system, the impact of the Guiding Principles on other international organizations, as well as the impact of standards and guidance developed by these different bodies.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.
Shutterstock
This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.