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

Has your State/National Society/Institution incorporated the commitments contained in this resolution into the relevant strategic or operational plans?

The commitments are incorporated into:
Operational plan

At the National level

Explanation:

xplanation:

Georgia is a party to all four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005.

The Government of Georgia pays particular attention to the effective implementation of the International Humanitarian Law. To address the issue, the National IHL Inter-Agency Commission of Georgia (hereinafter – IHL Commission) was created upon the Governmental Decree No.408 on October 28, 2011. IHL Commission is a permanent governmental body that coordinates the work of different governmental agencies in this field. Apart from the state agencies, experts in the fields of Public International Law, International Humanitarian Law and Criminal Law, as well as representatives from International Committee of the Red Cross (hereinafter – ICRC) and  Red Cross Society of Georgia are invited to participate in the work of the Commission.

One of the main areas of the work of the IHL Commission is the promotion of IHL through different types of outreach and educational activities in cooperation with the ICRC and Red Cross Society of Georgia. For instance, each year the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, in close cooperation with LEPL Training Center of Justice and International Committee of the Red Cross organizes national IHL competitions for students. Based on the statistics of 5 years, up to 450 students (including cadets of higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense) participated in the competition and the number of participants increases every year. Additionally, students receive additional preparation before the competition takes place. Lectures are delivered in different topics of IHL.

On the 33^rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent the National IHL Commission of Georgia and the Red Cross Society of Georgia have jointly pledged to continue close cooperation to promote respect for and implementation of IHL, by promoting dissemination and awareness raising in the field of IHL. Ten meetings have been held with the volunteers of the Georgian Red Cross Society and the representatives of the local self-governments of the different regions of Georgia in 2023-2024. More than 250 people attended the meetings.

All of the above-mentioned activities are covered by the IHL National Action plan that was adopted for 2-year time period on 19 July 2022 by the IHL Inter-Agency Commission. Other than that, the main goals to be achieved under the above-mentioned action plan are as follows:

• Study and refinement of the existing policy and legal framework in order to take into account the principles of international humanitarian law;
• Raising awareness about international humanitarian law;
• Qualification raising events in international humanitarian law;
• Search for missing persons as a result of armed conflict, and protection of personal data;
• Combating and preventing gender-based violence;
• Training of medical and non-medical personnel, including operators of disaster management centers, in emergency medical services;
• Emergency management and risk reduction;
• Ensuring enhanced security for volunteers;
• Identification and protection measures;
• Strengthening international cooperation and reporting.

With that being said, a new action plan is currently being developed.

Has your State/National Society/Institution been working with other partners to implement the commitments contained in this resolution?

Partner with:
National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society in your country
Government and/or public authorities
ICRC/IFRC
Other National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies
Academia
Other

Examples of cooperation:

Examples of cooperation:

The Georgian Inter-agency Commission on International Humanitarian Law, together with Governmental agencies, the Georgian Red Cross Society, the ICRC, the Academy and the International Humanitarian Law Committees of various states (UK National Committee on International Humanitarian Law, German National Committee on International Humanitarian Law and Austrian National Committee on International Humanitarian Law) implemented the Commission’s 2-years action plan. The forms of cooperation varied according to the different activities – such as organizing joint projects, conducting trainings, working on new legal regulations, and systematically raising awareness in international humanitarian law throughout the territory of Georgia.

Have you encountered any challenges in implementing the commitments contained in this resolution?

Details about challenges:

The pandemic was a major challenge in the work of National IHL Inter-Agency Commission of Georgia. The pandemic prevented the IHL Commission from fully fulfilling its role for a certain period of time, however, it should be noted that the Commission in close cooperation with all its members even in the period of pandemic kept organising awareness-raising activities in IHL online. It should be noted that the joint efforts of the Ministry of Health of Georgia and the Red Cross Society of Georgia were very important in the process of overcoming this very difficult period. After the problem of the pandemic was solved, the Commission continued to work on the strengthening of international humanitarian law in Georgia with even greater efforts and efficiency.

Have the commitments contained in this resolution had an impact on the work and direction of your State/National Society/Institution?

Type of Impact:
Cooperation between Government/public authorities and National Society has been strengthened
Programming and operations have become more effective and efficient
Innovative tools/methodologies have been developed and are utilized
Partnerships with other humanitarian actors have been created or enhanced
Increase in mobilization of resources
Training and capacity of staff and volunteers has increased (for National Societies)

Details about the impact:

Details about the impact:

With the collective efforts of the Interagency Commission of International Humanitarian Law and its member agencies, since 2019, in the direction of the implementation of IHL, following types of activities have been conducted: Organizing competitions in IHL, organizing trainings in IHL, raising the level of awareness in IHL  for professionals of various Governmental agencies (3450 professionals were trained), preparation of analysis documents in order to better reflect the principles of IHL in the activities of Governmental agencies, training of volunteers (320 volunteers were trained), implementation of effective measures to trace and recover missing persons who have gone missing as a result of armed conflicts in Georgia, mobilization of resources, participation in events related to IHL at the international level and establishing relations with IHL committees of various States.

Have the commitments contained in this resolution had an impact on the communities that your State/National Society/Institution serves?

Description of the impact:

Description of the impact:

The implementation of the activities envisaged by the action plan reflected on different segments of the Georgian society – students, schoolchildren, professionals working in various fields and volunteers of the Georgian Red Cross.