Upholding Humanity in War: Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law
The ICRC now counts more than 130 armed conflicts across the world – roughly two times what we counted 15 years ago.
What we observe in our work is that conflicts often become deeply protracted. With every new conflict, there is a real risk that it will continue for years, or even decades.
The average length of the ICRC’s presence in its ten largest operations is more than 40 years. That is a powerful reminder that, for millions of people, war is not a temporary interruption to life. It becomes the reality for entire generations who grow up in.
Armed conflicts are also often exacerbated by other crises such as natural disasters, pandemics, climate-related events, economic crises and food insecurity. Many of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and least ready to adapt are also experiencing armed conflict. The combination and accumulation of these crises can create a perfect storm, with each crisis making people more vulnerable, depleting resilience of communities further, and making recovery from the previous crisis harder.
At the same time, the rapid development of new and deadly weapon technologies is creating new risks for civilians. Just last month, the ICRC president and the United Nations Secretary General warned that we are dangerously close to crossing a moral red-line: the targeting of humans by machines. They called for states to urgently establish international rules on autonomous weapons systems to maintain human control over life-and-death decisions in war.
Drones are also reshaping how wars are being fought. Cheap and disposable, drones are reshaping the entire concept of a frontline, stretching it over thousands of kilometres and creating a sense that nowhere is safe.
Conflicts have also become increasingly urbanised, shifting from open fields where they were historically fought to densely populated cities where the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure is far greater.
As humanitarian needs rise because of war, we simultaneously see a rapid shrinking of humanitarian space, through rising attacks on humanitarian personnel and restrictions on humanitarian access.
As the challenges grow, the world must reassert a strong and effective commitment to respect IHL.
That is why, two years ago, China, Brazil, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan and South Africa, together with the ICRC, launched a Global Initiative to galvanize political commitment to international humanitarian law.
Today, 118 states have officially joined this Global IHL Initiative, which is close to two-thirds of all High-Contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions. Approximately 160 states have participated in consultations around seven thematic workstreams in an effort to bridge the gap between the law and compliance on the ground.
These workstreams include:
- Good practices to prevent IHL violations
- National IHL committees
- The connections between IHL and peace
- Protection of civilian infrastructure, including a focus specifically on hospitals
- Information and communication technology
- Naval warfare
We are encouraged that in these conversations, the majority of states have supported a protective rather than permissive interpretation of IHL. We are releasing an outcome document that shares some of the main findings of these consultations in an effort to support states in improving respect for IHL in practice.
The efforts over the last two years will culminate in a high-level historic conference hosted by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the 7th of December. The Humanity in War conference offers leaders to reaffirm their state’s commitment to IHL. We hope to see all states that have officially joined the IHL Initiative, including China, represented at the highest possible level.
The Global IHL Initiative is not about creating new international rules. It is not about revising the rules that exist. It is about bringing a renewed global focus to why these rules matter and why they must be upheld.
The world you will inherit depends on the choices leaders make today to preserve and uphold these life-saving rules. The signal they send later this year in Jordan is critical and we are thankful to the leadership shown by China to bring the Global IHL Initiative to life.
Dear scholars and students,
If you walk away from this lecture with only one sentence in mind, I hope it is this: IHL matters. It is not merely an academic framework studied in textbooks. Whether these rules are respected or disregarded has life and death consequences for people living through war today and tomorrow.
It is easy to feel helpless in the face of so much suffering today, but you all, as future leaders and decision-makers, have a role in shaping the kind of future we want for ourselves and our children.
I hope it is a future that honours our shared vision that humanity must prevail – even in war.
Thank you.
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