an independent, impartial and neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict

� IHL Handbook Presented to Montenegrin Parliamentarians� Exploring Humanitarian Law in Western Balkans� Book of Missing in Croatia Released� IHL Centre Opens in Belgrade� Integration of IHL into Army Training

IHL Handbook Presented toMontenegrin Parliamentarians

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Becoming party to IHL conventions and agreements is only a first step towards their im-plementation. Efforts must be made by both legislative and executive bodies of a state toturn IHL rules into action, first and foremost through the adoption of appropriate legis-lation or regulations. This is made clear in the Geneva Conventions, which oblige states„to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons com-mitting, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches“ defined in theConventions. (Article 49, 1st Geneva Convention of 1949)

Ranko Krivokapic, Montenegrin Parliament Speaker, and Christian Brunner, head of ICRC Regional Delegation, present the Handbook in the Parliament.

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International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Newsletter April 2007 ICRC Activities in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania

The ICRC seeks to preserve a measure of humanity in themidst of war. Its guiding prin-ciple is that even in war thereare limits: limits on how war-fare is conducted and limits onhow combatants behave. Theset of rules established withthis in mind and endorsed by194 states is known asInternational HumanitarianLaw (IHL), of which the fourGeneva Conventions of 1949are the bedrock. In order forthis law to be respected inarmed conflict, however, itmust first be in place andknown to all in time of peacealready.

On March 26, the ICRC officially presented atranslation of the Respect for International

Humanitarian Law handbook to the MontenegrinParliament, its Speaker and deputies. This publica-tion is specially designed to familiarise members ofparliament with International Humanitarian Law(IHL). Its objective is to heighten the MPs' aware-ness of the key role they, as legislators and politicalleaders, can play in promoting IHL implementationby adopting appropriate national legislation relatedto it. This useful publication also serves as a step-by-

step guide through the measures that States, and inparticular parliaments and their members, must taketo respect and ensure respect for IHL. The hand-book is the result of cooperation between theICRC, in its capacity of the guardian and promoterof IHL, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, theworld organisation of Parliaments. The presentationof the handbook received extensive affirmativecoverage in the Montenegrin national media, bothprinted and electronic ones.

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Translation of Respect forInternational HumanitarianLaw.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)Newsletter April 2007 ICRC Activities in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania

Exploring Humanitarian Law in Western Balkans

The Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 safeguards “the right offamilies to know the fate of their relatives.” (Article 32) It also stipulates that “each Partyto the conflict shall search for the persons who have been reported missing by an adverseParty.” (Article 33) All the countries in the region are party to the four GenevaConventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977.

The aim of this major ICRC initiative is to heighten aware-ness among governments,the military, international and national organisations,and the general public aboutthe tragedy of the missing.Among other things, it strivesto achieve this by creating andmaking available tools for action and communication,a typical example of which isthis Book of Missing.

Designed for teenagers, Exploring HumanitarianLaw (EHL) is an international educational pro-

gramme, helping both teachers and students to de-velop a basic understanding of humanitarian law andrespect for human dignity in situations of conflictand violence. The education authorities of theWestern Balkan countries have promptly recognizedthe need for this kind of a programme. After testingit in schools and evaluating it with the teachers whohave piloted the EHL, they started to integrate it in-to standard school curriculum across the region.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Zenica-Doboj can-ton was the first to fully integrate Exploring Huma-nitarian Law in its curriculum, with other cantonsfollowing suit. In Macedonia, Montenegro andSerbia, education professionals have already definedthe place of Exploring Humanitarian Law withintheir school systems, while the relevant institutionsin Slovenia, Kosovo and Albania are about to do

the same. Regular exchanges of experiencesamong all of them have greatly contributed to theprocess.

In February this year, the ICRC, together with theCroatian authorities and the Croatian Red Cross,

launched the Book of Missing Persons on the territory ofthe Republic of Croatia. The book lists the names of2,384 persons still unaccounted for after the 1991-95 conflict in Croatia and is an essential tool intracing missing persons and establishing their fate.Eleven years on, it is important to keep remindingthe authorities of their permanent obligation toprovide answers to the families of missing persons.The ICRC has already published Books of Missingpersons in relation to conflicts in Bosnia-Herzego-vina and Kosovo. According to ICRC's records, thefate of over 16,000 persons gone missing in theconflicts of the past decade in former Yugoslaviahas remained unknown to this day.

The release of the book also coincided withthe closure of the ICRC office in Zagreb. Eventhough the ICRC handed over the data on the

missing persons in Croatia to the national RedCross, it will nevertheless continue supporting theprocess of clarifying the fate of the missing bothin Croatia and throughout the region.

Cover of the Book of Missing Persons on the territoryof the Republic of Croatia.

States party to the Geneva Conventions have an obligation, in times of peace as in timesof war, to spread the knowledge of IHL as widely as possible, including civilian popula-tion, and, if possible, to include the study of it in civil instruction (Article 144, 4th GenevaConvention of 1949). The role of the national Red Cross societies is to “disseminate andassist their governments in disseminating IHL,” with the ICRC having a complementa-ry role “to work for the understanding and dissemination of knowledge of IHL applica-ble in armed conflict.” (Articles 3.2 and 5.2 respectively, Red Cross Movement Statute).

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Action to resolve the problemof people gone missing as aresult of armed conflict orinternal violence and to assisttheir families.

Book of Missing in Croatia Released

Future EHL trainers in an exercise.

Exploring Humanitarian Law

In 2003, the presidency of theEU Council accepted a pledge,urging all EU members andprospective candidates to implement InternationalHumanitarian Law (IHL) intheir formal school curricula.The ICRC EHL programmewas proposed as a possible toolfor such implementation. Itsintegration in schools wouldmean that the countries of theWestern Balkans are also fulfill-ing one of their obligations ontheir way to becoming full EUmembers. EHL is not endemicto the EU, however, as it is cur-rently implemented in some 70 countries worldwide. An exhaustive online resource centre for EHL can be found at www.ehl.icrc.org

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International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)Newsletter April 2007 ICRC Activities in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania

One of the main aspects of ICRC's coopera-tion with the armed forces in the region is in-

tegration of IHL into military training and educa-tion.

This was the topic of a round-table organisedin February at the Peace-Support OperationsCentre in Belgrade, where representatives of theSerbian Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence,Defence Attachés, academic circles, Serbian RedCross and the ICRC agreed on steps to be taken tobetter position IHL within the military trainingand education system in Serbia.

Another way of promoting IHL integration inthe training is through participation in military ex-ercises, such as the Cooperative Longbow-Lancer 07,an exercise of the NATO / Partnership for Peace/ Mediterranean Dialogue countries, which is be-ing organised this year in Albania, and the trilater-al military drill Danube Guard 07, which will involveBulgarian, Romanian and Serbian armed forces.

The Centre was established atFPS initiative, following years ofsteady development of variousICRC-supported IHL activitiessince 2001. Among them were:Specialised IHL Studieslaunched in 2002, hosting of thefirst regional students competi-tion in IHL in 2002, participa-tion in all national and regional,as well as some international,IHL contests for students, andorganisation, together with theSerbian Red Cross, of the annu-al Regional IHL Course since2004. The setting up of theCentre was also assisted by theICRC, which has donated asubstantial IHL library to it andsupported the creation of itswebsite at www.fpn.bg.ac.yu

The Centre for InternationalHumanitarian Law and Interna-

tional Organisations was officiallyopened at the Belgrade Faculty ofPolitical Science (FPS) on December7, 2006, with two panels reflectingthe Centre's character and objec-tives.

IHL and contemporary wars,different actors in conflict and theirresponsibilities, as well as war crimesand their repression were topics de-bated with journalists and facilitatedby FPS professor Vesna Knezevic-Predic (Director of the Centre),Prof. Miodrag Starcevic (SerbianRed Cross), Bruno Vekaric (War Crimes Prose-cutor's Office) and Djordje Vlajic (BBC). In anoth-er panel, representatives of the Ministries ofForeign Affairs and Defence, academic lecturersand experts analysed the heritage and challenges of

IHL in the country and the region, welcoming thecreation of the Centre as a reference institution.The ceremony was attended by numerous interna-tional representatives, national authorities and aca-demic experts from across the region.

IHL Centre Opens in Belgrade

States party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 take upon themselves to include the study of IHL“in their programmes of military and, if possible, civil instruction, so that the principles thereof maybecome known to all their armed forces…” (Article 127, 3rd Geneva Convention of 1949)

The ICRC assists armed forcesin training InternationalHumanitarian Law (IHL) or,as armed forces call it, Law ofArmed Conflict (LOAC). Thepast few years of fruitful co-operation with Serbia's Ministryof Defence have seen dozens ofcourses organised by the ICRCfor the country's military, whilesome 25 Ministry professionalstook part in different coursesorganised abroad, mainly in the San Remo Institute forInternational HumanitarianLaw in Italy. In order for theIHL training in Serbia toachieve full autonomy, more of these activities need to beorganised by the army itself,with the ICRC support and participation, which is the main goal of the 2007 cooperation agreement withthe Ministry.

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Army officers study IHL from textbooks and CDssupplied by the ICRC.

To reach tomorrow's decision-makers and opinion-leaders, the ICRC targets leading universities toencourage the inclusion of humanitarian law in courses offered in particular by the faculties of law,political science and journalism. As with the military, the ICRC's approach is to work with the au-thorities concerned, train trainers, produce resource materials, help establish IHL reference librariesand maintain a network of contacts within the academic world.

Integration of IHL into Army Training

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Facilitators at the Panel for Journalists.

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International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)Newsletter April 2007 ICRC Activities in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania

Protection of Persons Protected by International Humanitarian Law (IHL):Traces missing persons and assists their families to clarify the fate of their relatives gone missing in armedconflicts in the region.Offers legal advice to the governments in the region on how to legislate in favour of the families of miss-ing persons so that the legal obstacles caused by the absence of a missing person can be overcome, allow-ing the family to get on with their lives.Visits persons detained in relation to security and war crimes.

Preventive Action:Promotes the knowledge and implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), especially withthe armed and security forces, and national authorities responsible for integrating IHL into nationallegislation.Introduces IHL and humanitarian values into the curricula of public education with its ExploringHumanitarian Law (EHL) and Promotion of Human Values (PHV) programmes for adolescents.Supports academic institutions in promoting IHL and international exchange of IHL experiences.

Cooperation with National Red Cross Societies:Contribute to building and maintaining the capacity of the National Red Cross Societies to promoteInternational Humanitarian Law (IHL), the principles and humanitarian values of the International RedCross and Red Crescent Movement.Consolidates the National Red Cross Societies capacity to restore family links as part of the worldwide RedCross and Red Crescent tracing network.Maintains its preparedness to assist victims of armed conflict or natural disaster.Assists the National Red Cross Society in coping with other humanitarian activities, such as problemsposed by the still present risk of mines and explosive remnants of war.

What the ICRC does in the region:

For more information, please consult our website or pay us a visit

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)Juzni bulevar 144; 11000 Belgrade; SerbiaPhone: 011 3441-522 Fax: 011 3440-833

e-mail: belgrade.bel@icrc.org

www.icrc.org

ICRC Mission: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose ex-clusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance. Itdirects and coordinates the international relief activities conducted by the Movement in situations of conflict. It also endeavours to prevent suf-fering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. Established in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin ofthe International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Red Cross PrinciplesHUMANITYIMPARTIALITYNEUTRALITYINDEPENDENCEVOLUNTARY SERVICEUNITYUNIVERSALITY

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is composed of 184 National RedCross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and theInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It aims to prevent or allevi-ate human suffering, to protect life and health, to ensure respect for human dignity (especiallyin times of armed conflict), to work for the prevention of disease and the promotion of healthand social welfare, to encourage voluntary service and a constant readiness to help and, finally,to foster a universal sense of solidarity towards all those in need of its protection and assistance.