# Transcript

Narrator:

It’s important to know international humanitarian law, but it’s even more important to obey it and make sure that others obey it as well. In fact, this is a matter of life and death. People have been waging war since time immemorial. When an armed conflict breaks out, the law of the jungle is paramount, and civilization yields to brutality and chaos. War not only destroys precious objects and takes human lives, it wrecks the fabric of society. Everything collapses. And the brunt is always borne by civilians.

Speaker 1:

I had a wonderful home – and I lost it. I’ve lost everything. [translation]

Narrator:

Rape, plunder, ethnic cleansing, massacres, and violence of every kind are the grim spectre of war, blood-spattered and insatiable. And yet war does have limits, essential limits. They are the rules of humanitarian law. Even children playing war know the rules. These rules state how those taking part must behave, and require that the adversary be respected. The early rules were a matter of custom, established by the civilizations of the day. Other rules emerged from religious and ethical sources, such as the Bible and the Koran. Modern humanitarian law was founded in 1864 at the instigation of Henri Dunant and the International Committee of the Red Cross. It enshrined one basic rule. Spare anyone on the battlefield who is not taking part in the hostilities. Over time, the law’s scope broadened to protect other people affected by conflict and to impose restrictions on the way war is waged. Neutral and independent, the ICRC has a mandate from the international community to promote compliance with humanitarian law. That law is specifically designed for wartime, whereas human rights law covers all situations.

Philip Spoerri:

The ICRC has double responsibility. On the one hand, it has a responsibility to check and identify where violations of international humanitarian law occur, and to intervene on the level of the relevant authorities to counter these violations. And on the other hand, the ICRC also has a role to clarify and develop international humanitarian law when necessary.

Narrator:

The Geneva Conventions have today been accepted by every country on the planet. These conventions and their three additional protocols contain a vast array of provisions. Essentially, however, all their different articles are variations on just a few fundamental rules. Spare civilians. Spare the wounded and sick. Spare people who are detained. When the members of fighting forces fail to draw a distinction between the civilian population and military objectives, the result is an endless, terrifying cycle of reprisal and counter-reprisal. Civilians taking no direct part in the hostilities must be spared by the belligerents at all costs. Under no circumstances may they be targeted. Failure to obey this fundamental rule too often forces people to flee their homes, with all the pain and uncertainty this brings.

Reed Brody:

Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in the last couple of decades is that the main victims of armed conflict are civilians, men, women, and children, that the idea of war between two armies who line up on a battlefield and fight each other is long past. Now we see that up to 90 per cent of the casualties of modern warfare are civilians.

Narrator:

Sparing the wounded and sick, whether civilian or military, whatever side they belong to, is obligatory. As Henri Dunant always stressed, a wounded soldier is a non-combatant. But sparing the lives of victims isn’t enough. First aiders, ambulance staff, and hospitals must also be protected. The distinctive Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, and more recently the Red Crystal, exist to safeguard medical activities. But ensuring that protection is, alas, difficult. Making sure that no harm comes to people who are detained is an essential principle of the Geneva Conventions. Captured combatants and civilians in the hands of the enemy are entitled to respect for their lives and dignity. They must be protected from all forms of violence, especially torture. They must also be able to maintain links with their families, and to enjoy fundamental judicial guarantees. In war, you cannot do whatever you please. Humanitarian law bans the use of weapons that are indiscriminate, or cause excessive suffering. After a long campaign, anti-personnel mines, which go on maiming and killing long after the last shot has been fired, were finally banned by the Ottawa Convention of 1997. Today, humanitarian concerns are focusing on cluster weapons. But even if there is progress towards banning cluster munitions, what even more insidious weapons may appear tomorrow? Serious violations of the law can lurk behind expressions such as ‘surgical strikes’ and ‘collateral damage’. The warring parties must take all possible precautions to confine their attacks to military objectives, and to forgo operations that could cause excessive incidental civilian losses. The principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution are extremely basic, but sadly not always respected. Since the 11th of September, 2001, there’s been a polarisation in international affairs, and today’s world has many new tensions.

Narrator:

Both terrorist networks and programmes to fight those networks have destabilised entire regions. The rules of humanitarian law apply to new forms of conflict as they arise, and provide a basis for meeting today’s challenges.

Mary:

In the beginning all I wanted to do was kill the people who had killed my father. And I would have done that but the army made me accept the rules. I had to accept that. [translation]

Narrator:

The validity of humanitarian law is sometimes questioned by this or that political or military leader. And when it isn’t being totally flouted, the law is often poorly implemented, or it is quite simply unknown to those who are supposed to obey it. It’s important to make all those engaged in armed conflict aware of their responsibilities. These parties naturally include states, but also other entities. The rules of war apply to everyone. There are no exceptions. Conflict is not the preserve of the states. Weapons are also wielded by rebels, and also these days by private security companies, whose frequent failure to comply with the law is a serious problem. But little can get accomplished if there is no contact with the groups concerned.

Benjamin Sawyerr:

It is very important that the ICRC should put in more effort to speak to them as soon as they have been identified, go into their camps, and try to educate them on the law of armed conflict.

Narrator:

Ignorance of humanitarian law is something that must be fought. If people don’t even know the rules they’re supposed to obey, compliance with the law is impossible.

Speaker 3:

These rules are taken from international conventions that your own country has signed. Everybody has a right to be cared for when he or she is wounded.

Narrator:

If humanitarian law is to be respected, then every state must incorporate its content into its own law and military doctrine.

Elizabeth Cubias:

We started working in 1997 promoting knowledge of international humanitarian law and striving to ensure its implementation we want to prevent the errors and horrors committed in wartime. So our work in the future- orientated. Its up to others to concern themselves with what happened during the war. [translation]

Narrator:

The law has to punish those who violate it. Without penalties for non-compliance, how can humanitarian law be effective? A person suspected of having committed or ordered grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions can, whatever his nationality, be prosecuted either by the national courts of any country or by the international court. That court, the International Criminal Court, is based in The Hague. It’s an independent standing body before which individuals accused of the most serious acts, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, are tried. Over 100 countries have ratified the statute of the International Criminal Court, but this is nowhere near enough.

Philip Spoerri:

International criminal justice has an important function to end impunity. The tribunals have a very important dissuasive function. I wish, however, to point out that we are just at the beginning of a process. Lots of progress has been made over the past 10, 20 years in developing international criminal law and international justice. However, we are just at the beginning of the journey. There’s still a way to go before we have a system at the national and international level that counters acts of barbarism amounting to international crimes.

Narrator:

The rules of humanitarian law are of capital importance, and they are effective. When respected, they safeguard civilization as a whole. That is why it is vital for each of us to embrace and apply those rules. Despite all the strains on the system, humanitarian law is a reality. And it is capable of protecting anyone made vulnerable by war.