The education programme of ExploringHumanitarian Law (EHL) is designed tohelp teenagers understand better theworld of armed conflict around them,make them aware of the necessity ofhumanitarian norms and spark in them aninterest and responsible involvement inlocal and international events. By exploringethical and humanitarian issues arisingfrom armed conflict, EHL seeks to makepositive changes in the students' attitude,as a result of their adopting the ideas ofrespect for life and human dignity, civicresponsibility, and solidarity.The programme is now at various stages ofintegration into the standard school curric-ula across the region.In Macedonia, where a 10-school-hour EHLpackage has been adopted as a mandatorypart of the Civic Culture subject in the sen-ior grade of primary schools, final prepara-tions have been made to build the teach-ers' competence to explore humanitarianlaw with their students. Having alreadyproduced the EHL Handbook for Teachersand a practical guide to coping with strongemotions which may arise in the process,Macedonia's Bureau for Education Deve-
lopment is finalizing the cycle of teachertraining.It contains two main elements. One is, nat-urally, about bringing the basic IHL closerto the teachers and students. This, asSkopje teacher Biljana Smilevska puts it,results in looking at armed conflict, its rulesand responsibilities, from an entirely newperspective. The other component is aboutteaching methods, which, through a vari-ety of forms, encourage students to partic-ipate in class-work as actively as possible.EHL in Albania is now awaiting a politicaldecision based on the recommendationsof the Analytical Report prepared by theMinistry of Education Working Group,based on the Testing in Real SchoolEnvironment in 13 schools throughout thecountry.In Serbia, the education authorities havealso recognised the subject of Civic Edu-cation as the best milieu for EHL, but in sec-ondary rather than in primary schools. Inorder to assist the Institute for EducationDevelopment in finding the most suitableplace for EHL, an expert round table washeld in late October at the IHL Centre of theFaculty of Political Science, where recom-
mendations of experienced teachers andeducators, mostly from Serbia, but also fromBosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Slo-venia, were presented and discussed. Theirconclusion was that EHL should be integrat-ed in secondary schools as a 9-school-hourblock in Civic Education.The Montenegrin Institute for Education hasadopted a somewhat different approach bydesigning a 35-school-hour curriculum foran optional subject in the final grade of pri-mary schools. For those who do not selectthis subject, EHL is offered as a 9-hourextracurricular activity. So far, the subjectteachers of roughly half of Montenegro'sprimary schools have been trained toexplore humanitarian law with their stu-dents and some of them have already start-ed it.
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NEWSLETTERDecember 2007
EHL Origin: EHL was created by the ICRC and theEducation Development Centre(EDC) from Boston, USA. Introducingadolescents, 13-18 years of age, tothe basic rules of InternationalHumanitarian Law (IHL), the pro-gramme is run in more than 90countries worldwide.
TEACHERS GET TRAINED IN HUMANITARIAN LAW
Macedonian students discuss humanitarian law in class with their teacher
of the ICRC Regional Delegation Belgrade, covering Serbia, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro
Newsletter eng 13.qxd 11/15/2007 08:57 AM Page 1
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IHL in Academic Circles
IHL GETS REGION TOGETHER AGAIN
For the fourth time in as many years, Bel-grade's Faculty of Political Sciences play-ed host to some 30 advanced students oflaw, political sciences and police acade-mies from 17 academic institutions fromacross the region, who attended the 4th
Regional Course on International Huma-nitarian Law (IHL). The Course, which tookplace between September 23 and 28, isan annual academic event aiming at pro-viding an opportunity for the interestedstudents from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedoniaand Serbia to enhance and practice theknowledge of IHL acquired at their regu-lar courses. The lecturers are top IHL
experts and practitioners, and this yearthey came from Universities of Geneva,Warsaw, Zagreb, Belgrade and Nis, as wellas the ICRC and the Red Cross of Serbia.The Course was conceived as a series oflectures covering all the major IHL issuesapplying in modern conflicts, includingthose arising in peace operations and the"war on terror". The lectures were fol-lowed by the students' analysis of theevolving crisis in the imaginary region of"Oasis", where the fictitious states of Alfa,Omega, Delta and Sigma got embroiledin various conflict situations with manylegal ramifications, presenting the stu-dents with the challenge of applying theirknowledge to "real life" circumstances(treatment of prisoners, targeting mediaoutlets and religious sites, child soldiers,cluster munitions and many others). And,since in certain cases violations of IHLwere committed by the warring parties, atribunal had to be set up in order forthose responsible for the breaches to beput to justice, and the students acquiredthe experience of representing the prose-cutor and the defence council in a warcrimes court.
This year's Course also commemoratedthe anniversaries of the Hague Conven-tions (100 years) and the AdditionalProtocols (30 years) with an expert panelexamining the adequacy and relevance ofthe IHL rules adopted in more or less dis-tant past to the modern conflicts. Leadinginternational law experts from Ljubljana,Zagreb, Geneva and Belgrade dealt withthe question of "old rules for new wars?"in its different facets, including newactors such as private military companies,the role of national and international warcrimes courts, and the current challengesthe IHL is facing in contemporary world.
Fourth Regional Course on International Humanitarian Law heldat Belgrade's Faculty of Political Sciences in late September 2007
Quote from a student"It was great to learn things together,exchange experience and makefriends with students from all former(Yugoslav) republics - some of whomwere, at one point, even at war witheach other - and, based on it, perhapsmodify your own views on war,humanity, winning and losing sides…Diversity is really nice," says JelenaLovrek, a student form Zagreb LawFaculty, who took part in the Course.
NEW PHV CYCLE IN MACEDONIAFrom October 25 to 27, a preparatoryworkshop of the programme known asRed Cross in Action / Promotion of HumanValues (RCA-PHV) was held in Struga,Macedonia. The event marked the start ofthe programme's new 2007/08 cycle.During the workshop, a plan for theupcoming activities was created as wellas the teams that will lead the next fourregular workshops. The so-called "col-legium" was refreshed and new members
were selected to participate in activitiesas trainers and co-trainers. One of theRCA-PHV trainers took part in a projectpresentation given to the representativesof the Albanian education authorities andthe Albanian Red Cross.
SEMINAR ON "SPECIFICS OF IHL"On September 20 and 21, a seminar onthe "Specifics of International Humani-tarian Law" took place in the Macedoniancapital of Skopje. The seminar was organ-
ised within the framework of the regulartraining curriculum of the MacedonianAcademy for the Training of Judges andProsecutors for a selected target group ofjudges, prosecutors and legal staff fromdifferent administrative levels. The co-organisers were the Ministry of Justice,the Overseas Prosecutorial DevelopmentAssistance & Training (OPDAT) within theUS Department of Justice, OSCE and ICRC.This forum was also assisted by both localand international IHL experts. 444
MISSION: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whoseexclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide themwith assistance. It directs and coordinates the international relief activities conducted by the Movement in situations of con-flict. It also endeavours to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarianprinciples. Established in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
MOOT COURT IN B-HBetween November 3 and 7, an interna-tional moot-court competition in Interna-tional Humanitarian Law (IHL) was organ-ised by the ICRC Sarajevo Delegation onthe picturesque mountain of Bjelasnica,in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Law studentsfrom Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia,Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria, butalso from as far as Estonia, took part inthis interactive way of studying IHL. Afterfour days of acting out a case-study situa-tion, based on a fictitious armed conflictbetween the countries of Amber and Ava-lon, and arguing their case before a mocktribunal, the Montenegrin team came outthe winner, beating their Estonian rivals ina close fought final round on November 7.
REGION'S TRACING SERVICES MEETFor the first time, the persons in charge ofthe tracing services in the national soci-eties / local Red Cross (RC) units from allcountries of former Yugoslavia (exceptSlovenia) got together in late October, inOpatija, Croatia, in a meeting organisedby the ICRC and the Croatian RC. Theobjective was to provide a forum for par-ticipants to exchange experiences, dis-cuss issues of common interest, andencourage cooperation and coordination,regionally and bilaterally. Topics rangedfrom RC involvement in the Missing file tothe RFL Strategy for the Movement.Participants concluded that such oppor-tunities for exchange were greatly need-ed and should become regular events.
IDENTIFICATIONS IN CROATIAIn late October, two identification ses-sions of mortal remains of persons gonemissing during the 1991-95 Croatian con-flict were organised at the Zagreb Foren-sic Institute. Family members fromCroatia and Serbia positively identified 28sets of human remains belonging to theirmissing relatives. All of the 32 familymembers from Serbia who arrived at theInstitute for identification were transport-ed there by the ICRC. During the identifi-cation process - the first after July 2006 -they identified the remains of twenty oftheir deceased relatives. The first burial ofthe remains identified on this occasiontook place already on November 15,2007.
News in brief
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www.icrc.org
International Committee of the Red Cross
What the ICRC does in the region:Missing Persons: Collects and consolidates information that might help the responsible authorities to clarify the fate ofpersons gone missing during the conflicts in the region, and to recover their remains.Offers legal advice to the governments on how to legislate in favour of the families of missing persons sothat the legal obstacles caused by the absence of a missing person can be overcome, allowing the fami-ly to get on with their lives.
Promotion of IHL: Promotes the knowledge and implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), especially withthe armed and security forces, and national authorities responsible for integrating IHL into national leg-islation.Introduces IHL as well as 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: Contributes to building and maintaining the capacity of the National Red Cross Societies to promote IHL,the principles and humanitarian values of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.Consolidates the National Red Cross Societies' capacity to restore family links as part of the worldwideRed Cross and Red Crescent tracing network. Strengthens the National Societies' capacity to respond tothe humanitarian needs arising from armed conflict or internal strife.Assists the National Society in coping with other humanitarian activities, such as dealing with problemsposed by the still present risk of mines and explosive remnants of war.
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