Public Lecture

September 27, 2012

On September 25, Ms. Els Debuf, legal adviser, head of the project on customary international humanitarian law in the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva) visited Kyrgyzstan and gave a guest lecture for the American University of Central Asia students. The topic of the lecture was Customary International Law.

Ms. Els Debuf talked about definition, methodology, and conflict in Customary International Humanitarian Law. She also talked about rules and database of the law.

In 1996, the International Committee of the Red Cross, in consultation with experts from around the world, embarked on a major study to identify rules of customary international humanitarian law (IHL). The resulting publication, which appeared in 2005, has been hailed as a landmark document seeking to identify the common core of IHL binding on all parties to all types of armed conflict.

The study makes it easier to identify and apply customary IHL and therefore to enhance the legal protection of victims of armed conflict, thereby reducing the human cost of conflict. (from ICRC handout)

The ICRC has launched online version of the study. It will help all interested people to understand the law in a concrete way, and know how to protect victims of armed conflict, using the rules of the law.