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

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:
Stratégie
Politique
Plan opérationnel

Au International, Régional, National niveau

Précisions :

Although the promotion, implementation, and development of IHL have been included in the strategy for the British Red Cross for many years, this resolution has helped us to make the case internally that this work is of value to States and the wider Movement. In addition, certain paragraphs within the resolution, such as OP 10, directly informed our activity plans between 2019 and 2024. A full breakdown of the resolution’s impact follows below.

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 :
Gouvernement et/ou autorités publiques
CICR/Fédération internationale
Autres Sociétés nationales de la Croix-Rouge ou du Croissant-Rouge
Partenaires de l’humanitaire et du développement (par ex. Nations Unies, organisations non gouvernementales, etc.)
Universités

Exemples de coopération :

The British Red Cross has a well-established and strong auxiliary relationship with the UK Government in IHL. They are our primary partner.

We also have longstanding partnerships with other relevant organisations in the UK, such as Chatham House and the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. We have worked with these organisations and others to help advance the commitments in this resolution.

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 :

The Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult to meet in person for training events and to collaborate on joint projects. It also drew attention away from IHL activities as, understandably, officials and Red Cross and Red Crescent colleagues were focused on the response to that public health emergency. For instance, the British Red Cross and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office started a project to encourage other States to undertake voluntary reporting on the implementation of IHL at the domestic level. Owing to the pandemic, competing priorities made it challenging for colleagues to devote time and attention to such a new initiative.

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.
Des outils/méthodes innovateurs ont été élaborés et sont utilisés.
Des partenariats avec d’autres acteurs humanitaires ont été noués ou renforcés
Autre

Précisions au sujet des incidences :

For ease of reference, we have listed relevant activities under each of the operative paragraphs of Resolution 1. In some cases, the paragraph is addressed to States or parties to armed conflicts, rather than National Societies, per se. Nevertheless, we have indicated where the British Red Cross was able to assist the UK to meet one of its commitments in an auxiliary capacity.

Operative paragraph 1: N/A

Operative paragraph 2:

In 2024, with the assistance of the British Red Cross, the UK is in the process of updating its Voluntary Report on the Implementation of IHL at the Domestic level.

In 2020, 2022 and 2024, the British Red Cross assisted the FCDO with its report to the UN Secretary General on follow-up to the biennial UN General Assembly resolution on the Status of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts. The 2022 report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-humanitarian-law-uk-developments-and-activities-2020-to-2022. The UK introduced a new questionnaire format for this report which is available for use by other countries and can be downloaded at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/status-of-the-protocols-additional-to-the-1949-geneva-conventions-and-relating-to-the-protection-of-victims-of-armed-conflicts-template-questionnaire.

In 2021, the British Red Cross assisted the UK Government with the preparation of its first Periodic Report to UNESCO on the Implementation of the 1954 Hague Convention and its Protocols. The report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-first-periodic-report-implementation-of-the-1954-hague-convention-and-protocols.

In 2019, the FCDO and the British Red Cross developed a toolkit to assist State officials to undertake voluntary reporting on the implementation of IHL. This toolkit was launched at a side event of the 33IC. Since then, it has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Russian, Swahili and Simplified Chinese.

Operative paragraph 3:

The British Red Cross is an active participant in the Tri-Sector (Government, Finance, NGO) Working Group on UK sanctions regimes, which is led by the UK Government and represents an intensification of their efforts to ensure that UK sanctions comply with IHL, both in their drafting and in their practical implementation.

In 2022, UK media companies were reporting on prisoners of war (POW) in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including with photographs or video of individual POWs. Even though the UK is not a party to the conflict, it nevertheless has an obligation to protect prisoners of war from insults and exposure to public curiosity. Working with the FCDO, we wrote to British media outlets to remind them of longstanding BRC and UK government guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-curiosity-in-the-1949-geneva-conventions-uk-government-and-british-red-cross-interpretation) on how to depict POWs in accordance with Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention. Relevant UK government departments also established communications with media organisations on the issue. These reminders had a beneficial effect.

In 2022, the British Red Cross worked with the UK National IHL Committee and the UK Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War to host a joint seminar to mark the 45th Anniversary of the adoption of the Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Speakers at the event covered the history of the Protocols and their relevance from the perspective of the FCDO, the MOD and the ICRC.

Operative paragraph 4: N/A

Operative paragraph 5:

The British Red Cross continues to be an active participant in the UK National Committee on IHL, which meets twice a year.

2024 marks the 25th Anniversary of the UK’s National IHL Committee. There will be a joint event with the British Red Cross later in the year to mark this, and the 75th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.

Operative paragraph 6:

In 2021, the FCDO, the ICRC and the British Red Cross, with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat, organised a meeting of Commonwealth IHL Committees. The British Red Cross also participated in the 5th Universal Meeting of IHL Committees

In 2023, the British Red Cross participated in the European Regional Meeting of IHL Committees.

Operative paragraph 7: N/A

Operative paragraph 8:

As part of our partnership with Chatham House, the British Red Cross sponsored research projects and events on the following topics:

A briefing on 70 Years of the Geneva Conventions (2020):
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/03/seventy-years-geneva-conventions.

Research on IHL & Sanctions (2021): https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/09/ihl-and-humanitarian-impact-counterterrorism-measures-and-sanctions.

Identifying co-parties to an armed conflict (2024):
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/03/identifying-co-parties-armed-conflict-international-law/04-implications-co-party-status.

Humanitarian arrangements (2024):
https://www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/research-event/surviving-conflict.

In 2022 the British Red Cross worked with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to launch an updated version of the CPA’s IHL Handbook for Parliamentarians: https://www.cpahq.org/news/2022_04-ihl-handbook-relaunch/.

In 2022 and 2024, the British Red Cross held its biennial Summer School on International Humanitarian Law.

In partnership with the FCDO International Academy, the British Red Cross delivers Introductory IHL trainings for civil servants and diplomats two to three times a year.

Each year, the British Red Cross hosts 2-3 meetings of the UK Group of the International Society of Military Law and the Law of War.

In 2020, the ICRC and the British Red Cross led a joint Introductory IHL training session for select committee staff at the House of Commons: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/ihl-primer-house-commons-staff .

In 2022, the British Red Cross released new teaching resources on talking to children about armed conflict: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/teaching-resources/how-to-talk-about-conflict-impartially

In 2022, working with several European National Societies, the IFRC and the ICRC, the British Red Cross helped to draft, edit and to translate a briefing paper on the Role of National Societies during International Armed Conflicts under IHL (soon to be available in 7 languages): https://www.redcross.org.uk/-/media/documents/about-us/briefing-note-executive-summary–talking-points–the-role-of-national-societies-during-international.pdf.

Operative paragraph 9:

The British Red Cross sponsored a round table at Nottingham University on disability and warfare and arranged for speakers from the UK Defence Medical Services and from British Army Legal Services to speak at the event.

Operative paragraph 10:

Working with the Red Cross and Red Crescent European Legal Support Group, the British Red Cross helped to develop an innovative interactive film entitled “If War Comes to You” and is now promoting the film and its associated teaching resource on our website: https://ifwarcomestoyou.com/uk/in-the-classroom/ .

In 2022 and 2024, the British Red Cross launched a social media campaign on IHL which employed a “Handraiser”. Over 37.7k people ‘signed’ the Handraiser to show support for the Geneva Conventions and 14.5k people offered us their e-mail address. As far as we are aware, this is an innovative way to promote IHL on social media.

In 2022 and 2023 we coordinated with other National Societies across Europe to share social media assets, a poster, and talking points to help address some misuses of the emblem in Ukraine and neighbouring countries which originated from elsewhere in Europe, including the UK.

Each year, with funding from the FCDO, the British Red Cross has continued to provide personnel and other support to update the practice section of the ICRC’s Customary IHL Database: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl.

In 2023 and 2024, the British Red Cross has served on the Movement’s Digital Emblem Working Group. It has promoted the Movement’s work towards the development of a digital emblem at meetings of the UK National IHL Committee and of Defence Medical Service’s Ethics Committee.

Operative paragraph 11: N/A

Operative paragraph 12:

In 2022, in order to help the UK authorities with their search for persons alleged to have committed, or have ordered to be committed grave breaches of the relevant IHL treaties, the British Red Cross updated the refugee services section of its website to include information on How to Report a War Crime: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-help/get-help-as-a-refugee#War%20crime.

Operative paragraph 13:

The FCDO and the British Red Cross undertook a joint project to assist other States with voluntary reporting on the implementation of IHL in their respective territories. Although the formal project was hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to successfully raise awareness of the value of voluntary reporting and to share our resources with a number of other countries, some of whom have since undertaken voluntary reporting outside the scope of our formal project.

In 2022, the British Red Cross supported a Joint Swiss Government and ICRC event on voluntary reporting on the implementation of IHL at the domestic level.

In 2023, the British Red Cross worked with the Commonwealth Secretariat to organise a joint meeting on voluntary reporting on the implementation of IHL at the domestic level.

In 2024, the British Red Cross provided practical and financial support for the 6th Commonwealth Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference on IHL.

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 :

It is difficult to measure the direct impact of the commitments contained in the resolution on communities in the UK. Improving understanding of and compliance with IHL is a continuing and long-term process. We feel that there is a greater awareness of IHL and of the actions taken by the UK and by the British Red Cross in implementing and upholding IHL.

Although IHL is not directly relevant to many of our service users, our renewed focus on IHL dissemination activities, particularly in schools, will have the impact at community level of increasing the public’s baseline awareness of IHL, in particular, the Geneva Conventions.