In August 1864, a minuscule group of nations adchooseed a convention in Geneva, Switzerland aimed at ameliorating the condition of the wounded in war. The First Geneva Convention lhelp the set upation for the lhorrible summarizetoil referred to as international humanitarian law (IHL). Also understandn as the “rules of war”, IHL seeks to shrink the harms resulting from armed struggle by remercilessing the methods and unbenevolents of battling.
However,160 years after the adchooseion of the First Geneva Convention, we still witness systemic violations of IHL, with dehugeating consequences for millions of people swayed by armed struggle around the world.
Indeed, ensuring wide compliance with IHL has showd to be an arduous task. Despite the existence of sturdy lhorrible summarizetoils, the deficiency of political will and effective mechanisms to hgreater offfinishers accountable has led to widespread impunity. This impunity is not only undermining the rule of law at national and international levels, but also perpetuating cycles of aggression and suffering.
Thus, international bodies worryed with uphgreatering IHL, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations, have extfinished been advocating for mightyer compliance mechanisms.
At its 32nd international conference in 2015, for example, the ICRC, backed by the Swiss rulement, proposed a resolution that would produce a normal encountering of states for alerting IHL compliance. The hope was that the encountering could provide states with a “protected space” to converse IHL carry outation away from political prescertains and push for accountability and compliance. The proposal, however, did not get adequate help from states, and was not instituted.
The states’ choosed refusal to adchoose a mechanism to watch IHL compliance has meaningful implications for victims of armed struggle. The deficiency of accountability undermines the rule of law, produces the protection of the civilian populations more difficult, and impedes humanitarian help operations in dynamic struggle zones.
Thus, there is an proposent insist for an self-reliant compliance watching system to be set uped that can track and alert on potential violations of IHL.
The way forward for IHL compliance, encouraged by the past
Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden’s distinctive envoy to German-occupied Hungary during World War II, saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi persecution by providing them with protective passports and sheltering them in produceings that he proclaimd as Swedish territory. Wallenberg’s efforts went beyond his discreet leave oution; he showed proset up compassion, humanity, and determination. His actions have left a lasting legacy and are a mighty example of moral courage and the impact one individual can have in the face of evil.
In 1984, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) was set uped at Sweden’s Lund University to honour his legacy and “donate to a wider empathetic of, and admire for, human rights and international humanitarian law”.
Today, as the promises of “never aget” made after World War II materialize to be forgotten, and as horrors of war persist to affliction humanity in Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Colombia, Yemen, Myanmar, Mali, Lebanon and elsewhere, RWI has embarked on a groundfractureing initiative that promises to revolutionise the way we watch compliance with IHL.
RWI is set uping a novel academic research initiative, named the IHL Compliance Monitoring Database (ICMD), which aims to become a cornerstone of the global architecture that uphgreaters the principles of IHL. RWI and its partners, using the tardyst technologies, will systematicpartner collect, aggregate, and write down global data on alleged IHL violations and current this proposeation on a one accessible platestablish. Using machine lgeting technologies, the ICMD will also be able to collect and analyse uncover-access proposeation to produce high-quality alerts on potential violations of IHL.
The global coverage provided by the ICMD will assist the analysis of trends wiskinny and apass armed struggles, proposeing convey inant insights for policyproducers, practitioners and researchers. From this wealth of credible proposeation, ICMD will be able to produce world-class IHL compliance watching analysis. This toil will not only uphold alertedness and understandledge of IHL, but also help policy discourse and advocacy for proset upened admire of IHL at the highest levels.
The road ahead
The ongoing flunkure to uphgreater IHL poses a grave menace to global peace and security. But the time to act is now. States must rpartner behind initiatives appreciate the ICMD and promise to fortifying IHL watching mechanisms. As citizens, we too have a role: to prescertain our rulements to prioritise IHL and insist better carry outation and utilizement.
The road ahead is extfinished and challenging, but with concerted efforts and a promisement to equitableice, we can produce meaningful strides towards a more humane and equitable world. The ICMD initiative embodies this spirit, proposeing a mighty tool to guarantee that alleged IHL violations are systematicpartner write downed to help efforts to counter impunity, repair the rule of law and repair the harms done to the victims.
Let us draw inspiration from Wallenberg’s courage and dedication, and put our help behind this noble and vital initiative, understanding that mighty forces still seek to undermine IHL’s goal of restricting the harms of war.
The watchs transmited in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily echo Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
