Teaching young people the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law
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The Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) Virtual Campus is an ICRC resource centre for educators who want to:
- teach the values underpinning international humanitarian law, such as respect for life and human dignity
- explore with their students the ethical and humanitarian issues that arise during armed conflict
- develop their students' capacity to analyze complex situations
- use high-quality primary source materials (videos, photos, letters, etc.) to help students capture the feeling of people who lived through difficult situations
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A wide range of resources is available, such as learning modules, workshops, training videos and a discussion forum.
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If you want to participate, now is the time!
Send us your stories, photos or videos before the end of November. You can win a copy of the beautifully crafted "Humanity in War"-- a book retracing frontline photography since 1860. The best entries will also be prominently displayed on the Virtual Campus and ICRC's website.
You too can make your move!
Read more about the competition...
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During the Solferino Youth Camp in June 2009, 42 young people, representing 23 National Societies, participated in a workshop based on the Exploring Humanitarian Law programme.
During five hours, they came to grips with basic concepts of international humanitarian law, using creative and interactive techniques and drawing on their own experiences and knowledge. At the end of the workshop, they created a non-verbal drama to illustrate what they had learned. "This workshop was totally different from anything else I attended during the week", said Eero Rämö, of the Finnish Red Cross.
Find out why!
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Why not outlaw war instead of trying to design rules for its proper conduct? Doesn’t the very existence of such rules legitimize war?
As a matter of fact, resorting to war is generally prohibited today.
In 1919, the Covenant of the League of Nations established a procedure for settling disputes between countries peacefully, in an effort to avoid war. The Kellogg Briand Pact of 1928 was the first international treaty to outlaw war. The adoption of the United Nations (UN) Charter in 1945 continued this trend. The Charter goes a step further by declaring that UN member States must refrain from using force or threatening to do so in their international relations. It outlines only two situations in which the use of force is permissible: when the UN Security Council decides to use force collectively to restore international peace and security and for individual or collective self-defence in case of an armed attack against a UN member State. The UN Charter does not address the use of force in non-international armed conflicts.
History shows that outlawing war does not prevent its occurrence. While efforts to promote dialogue, diplomacy and other peaceful means of resolving disagreements should continue, armed conflict is likely to remain a grim reality. That is why IHL sets out rules for conducting war: in order to limit the suffering and damage it inflicts on people, property and the environment.
Therefore, the fact that IHL provides rules for warfare does not mean that it either condones or legitimizes war; it means only that, for humanitarian reasons, IHL focuses on the effects of war and leaves the legality of wars to be determined in accordance with the UN Charter.
Source: IHL Guide
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