Ratification of international humanitarian law (IHL) instruments

A) Objectives of the pledge:

Achieving universality of IHL legal instruments contributes to responsible State behaviour and to reducing suffering during armed conflict.

The EU Member States pledge to:

• work towards further participation in the principal IHL instruments and other relevant international legal instruments by considering ratification of those instruments to which they are not yet party;
• explore ways of better using existing mechanisms and procedures at the domestic level, such as national IHL committees, to promote ratification and implementation of IHL instruments.

B) Action plan:

The EU Member States will:

• consider the ratification of IHL and other relevant instruments to which they are not yet all parties, such as:
  • The 2006 Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance;
  • The Additional Protocol III to the Geneva Conventions;
  • The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict;
  • The First Protocol to the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict;
  • The Second Protocol to the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict;

• • Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V) to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of the Certain Conventional Weapons which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects;
  • The Convention on the Prohibition of Military Use of Environmental Modification Techniques;
  • The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

C) Indicators for measuring progress:

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D) Resource implications:

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