Legal Responsibility under International law

Legal Responsibility under International law

Introduction

It is a question, difficult but essential than improving compliance with international law humanitarian law in the context of international armed conflicts, but also non-international. In this respect the lessons of Symposium Bruges last year, which focused on the relevance of international humanitarian law, for non-state actors, will be very useful. You often come some have questioned about the relevance of humanitarian law silent in certain conflict situations encountered today, especially in the presence of non-state actors resorting to methods terrorist. This kind of questions, quite legitimately, is nothing new. The humanitarian law is always adapted to new situations, and thinking of the wars of national liberation to be convinced. We seem worth noting that such questions are before all focus on the flaws in the implementation and enforcement of existing law. It no point in anything you want to change standards under the pretext that they are not met without trying to understand why they are not.

The ICRC has also undertaken a rigorous analysis and evaluation the relevance of humanitarian law to identify and attempt to answer legal challenges posed by the interpretation and application of humanitarian law silent. At this stage, the ICRC is convinced that, in general, the right adequately meets the needs caused by modern armed conflict. Of Similarly, the group of experts who met at the beginning of the initiative Swiss Government and Harvard University, came to the conclusion that the existing law is generally satisfactory, and the need to focus on better enforcement of these standards.

When we speak of improving compliance with international humanitarian law, the deficiencies most frequently cited concern the knowledge of standards and suppression of violations. It is clear that we cannot meet normally that is not known and that the punishment of criminal behavior not only "does justice" but may also deter adopt the same criminal behavior. Experience has shown, however, that not enough not improve education and strengthen enforcement. While progress has been made ??over the past fifteen years in the areas of dissemination of humanitarian law, and the repression of violations was devoted credit much less attention to the improvement of mechanisms to ensure better compliance with the law during the conflict. International humanitarian law is applicable in situations specific and legal mechanisms to be put in place reflect these features. Ratified the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, States pledged to "respect and ensure respect" the right. We have exam undermine all what exactly does this obligation to "respect and ensure respect "for international humanitarian law, not only in situations known "Classical" international armed conflict, but also in situations of non-international armed conflicts. We need to examine how we can strengthen law enforcement with all kinds of armed groups. We gather in a host of important military alliance and a Union of States is not less. The Alliance and the Union are involved on the international political scene, they are involved in the management civil and military crisis, and not ...