Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law: Official Book Launch and discussion

The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, in conjunction with customary international humanitarian law (IHL), establish a rule, applicable in both international and non-international armed conflict whereby IHL must be respected and States must ‘ensure respect’ for IHL. This book, published by Routledge in August 2020, seeks to articulate what giving effect to this obligation might look like across a range of specific areas of IHL. Contributors have offered accounts of responses that States are and/or could be taking to ensure respect for different aspects of IHL. Whether these measures are being carried out to expressly satisfy this specific obligation or not, and whether a State considers the requirement to ensure respect to be a legal requirement or moral and political imperative, the measures they take are equally relevant. The findings in the book indicate that there exists a toolbox of positive and negative measures available to States – which can be exercised along a spectrum depending on their capacity and influence in any particular circumstance. These include: State actions, largely domestic in character, which set the example and encourage other States to respect IHL; States taking responsibility, mostly at the regional and international level, to create a conducive environment within which all States are able to build respect for IHL; and direct, coercive action which States can take to enforce the concept of respect for IHL in the face of a violation.

In this online discussion we will seek to discuss these findings with a view to taking these ideas forward and engaging with them beyond the book.

Official Book Launch and discussion:

Dr Helen Durham AO will officially launch Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law, followed by presentations and Q&A with chapter authors and the books editors who will discuss their key findings and insights. 

Speakers include chapter authors:

Sarah McCosker, Catherine Drummond, Kenneth Wyne Mutuma, Petra Ball and book editors and chapter authors Eve Massingham and Annabel McConnachie.

Start time: 4pm AEST

• United Kingdom: 7am
• Geneva: 8am
• Nairobi: 9am
• Washington DC: 2am