Report on – 33rd IC Resolution 1: Bringing IHL home: A road map for better national implementation of international humanitarian law (33IC/19/R1) – Bangladesh Red Crescent Society

Votre État/Société nationale/institution a-t-il/elle incorporé les engagements contenus dans cette résolution dans les plans stratégiques ou opérationnels pertinents ?

Les engagements sont incorporés dans les documents suivants:
Législation (par ex. loi, réglementation, statuts, règlement intérieur, etc.)

Au National niveau

Précisions :

Bangladesh as a state party is obliged to incorporate provisions for the repression of breaches of the Conventions and their protocols. Bangladesh is yet to enact specific legislation to that effect. National IHL Committee in collaboration with the ICRC organised a workshop a few years back to draft the implementing legislation to that effect. However, due to Covid -19 situation, there was no further progress until this year. National IHL Committee has met twice this year to finalise the draft and on 27 June, another meeting will be held to finally send it to the Cabinet Division for placing it before the Parliament.

Moreover, National IHL Committee has finalised the draft of the implementing legislation for the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention and on upcoming 27 June, hopefully the draft will be sent to the Ministry of Defense for placing it before the Cabinet Division.

As a party to the Geneva Conventions and its Protocols, Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has an obligation to translate them and to communicate the official translations to Swiss Federal Council. It also has the obligation to communicate the translations to other state parties during hostilities.  Draft translation of the GC & AP translated into Bangla as a result of an initiative taken by the ICRC has been submitted to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). National IHL Committee of Bangladesh has taken up the issue for consideration and after sending the abovementioned two legislation to the Cabinet Division, the IHL Committee will deal with the issue of translation.

BDRCS is a member of the National IHL Committee and since its inception, has been contributing crucially in the monitoring of the national implementation of IHL.

Votre État/Société nationale/institution a-t-il/elle coopéré avec d’autres partenaires aux fins de la mise en œuvre des engagements contenus dans cette résolution ?

Partenariats avec :
Société nationale de la Croix-Rouge ou du Croissant-Rouge de votre pays
Gouvernement et/ou autorités publiques
CICR/Fédération internationale
Autres Sociétés nationales de la Croix-Rouge ou du Croissant-Rouge
Universités

Exemples de coopération :

To supervise the national implementation of IHL, GoB has formed a National IHL Committee in pursuance of an Executive Order issued by the Prime Minister, with the representation of all the key ministries of GoB and the defense services. Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) is also a member of the Committee represented through its Honorary Legal Adviser on IHL, who is a Professor of IHL at the University of Dhaka. ICRC is also invited as an observer as and when needed. Thus, this Committee, which has successfully accommodated all the crucial partners, is playing a very crucial role in encouraging and inducing the GoB to fulfil their obligations under different IHL treaties.

Recently, the Honorary Legal Adviser on IHL has also been entrusted with the task of advising the BDRCS how to improve its role as an auxiliary to the Government by upgrading the relevant provisions in the final version of the new Red Crescent law, drafted by the BDRCS with the support of the International Federation and the ICRC. The Legal Adviser is already in touch with the other National Societies of the region to provide the BDRCS with appropriate advice.

Vous êtes-vous heurté·e à des difficultés dans la mise en œuvre des engagements contenus dans cette résolution?

Difficultés rencontrées :
Priorités concurrentes

Précisions au sujet des difficultés :

Due to the invasion of Covid-19 soon after the 33^rd conference, the implementation of the resolution faced the main challenge of competing priorities. Bangladesh, not being much resourceful, had to really struggle during the Corona situation. BDRCS contributed a lot towards the fight against Covid 19. Even after that, 2022 and 2023 were much eventful in terms of international relations and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) had to remain busy with all those international dilemmas, including the influx of displaced persons from Myanmar.  Therefore, it was almost impossible to induce the MOFA to convene the meeting of National IHL Committee.

Les engagements contenus dans cette résolution ont-ils eu une ou des incidences sur l’action et les orientations de votre État/Société nationale/institution ?

Type d’incidence :
La coopération entre le gouvernement/les autorités publiques et la Société nationale a été renforcée.

Précisions au sujet des incidences :

The glaring example of such impact is that once MOFA has got favourable atmosphere, three consecutive meetings of the national IHL Committee have taken place only within a span of four months.

Les engagements contenus dans cette résolution ont-ils eu des incidences sur les communautés auxquelles votre État/Société nationale/institution vient en aide ?

Description des incidences :

Once we get the Legislation approved by the Parliament, it will be implemented through the various programs of BDRCS at the community level.