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China: symposium considers new challenges to international humanitarian law
14-01-2011 Feature
How can people be better protected in today's armed conflicts? Can international humanitarian law (IHL) protect people in cyber warfare? Should civilians participating in hostilities be considered legitimate military targets?
These and other cutting-edge questions well beyond "classic" cases of IHL were discussed by experts from China and the East/South East Asia region at a recent symposium hosted by the ICRC and the Chinese Society of International Law.
"For the past few years the ICRC and the Chinese authorities have jointly promoted the integration of IHL—the law that protects people and regulates fighting in war—into the curriculum of a number of universities in China. But there was also a clear need to stimulate discussion and advance the thinking on current issues that are more complex and challenging," said Anton Camen, legal advisor and deputy head of the ICRC's regional delegation for East Asia.
About 45 participants, mainly Chinese academics, attended the Symposium on Current Issues Related to International Humanitarian Law held on 23 October 2010 at the China University of Foreign Affairs.
In his keynote address, Sylvain Vité, a legal advisor at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, broached the new challenges and questions by highlighting a recently completed study on the current state of IHL.
He asserted that IHL remained an appropriate framework for regulating the behaviour of parties to armed conflict, and that the main problem lay in lack of compliance, rather than lack of rules. He added that some areas still need to be strengthened.
From the study the ICRC has selected four issues which will be reviewed to pave the way for the reinforcement of the law governing armed conflict. The issues are: protection for detainees; the implementation of humanitarian law and reparation for victims of violations; the protection of the environment; and the protection of internally displaced persons.
"The ICRC is consulting with a number of States from the different regions of the world on these issues," explained Mr Vité.
The study provoked lively discussion and numerous questions among the participants at the event. Some wanted to know what criteria were used to choose the issues while others asked about how IHL might overlap with other bodies of law.
"Why should IHL instruments be developed in areas that seem to go beyond armed conflict?" asked one participant.
It was important to open up this kind of debate "to hear the range of opinions from academics and officials in China on these issues," said Mr Vité. "This is the first exchange of views and we need to promote the discussion in order to better help protect people in situations of armed conflict."
One session that particularly piqued the interest of and interaction among participants was on the relationship between IHL and computer network attacks, which remains an emerging and rapidly evolving topic.
Panellists pointed out that attacks on computer systems could have dire consequences for a civilian population because of increasing dependence on such systems to manage basic goods and services, such as water or power. They cited such examples as the use of cyber attacks to interrupt or destroy a city’s water supply.
"Cyber war may not exist within the traditional definition of war or conflict because it involves the use of computers instead of weapons for conflict purposes," said Professor Ahmad Ghazali Abu-Hassan, director of the Centre for Defence and International Studies in Malaysia. "There is no direct use of violence but the consequence can be similar in terms of death, injuries, damage and destruction."
“But the evolution of technology is not foreign to the development of IHL,” noted Sylvain Vité, who also spoke on the panel. “Right from its conception IHL embraced the challenge of adapting its general principles – such as distinguishing between civilians and combatants – to the evolution of war and war technology,” he added.
"We are not only talking about new weapons and methods of warfare, but also about a totally new domain in which war is fought – cyberspace,” he said. "It is like a new manmade war theatre, just like we have natural theatres of war, such as land, air or the sea. So maybe here the need for reflection is greater than usual."
The event touched on similarly thought-provoking issues such as whether civilians who participate in hostilities can lose their protection from being attacked and the rules of IHL governing nuclear weapons.
"I'm satisfied today—and I hope all of you are— because we have exchanged information, ideas and opinions," said Professor Lu Song, secretary-general of the Chinese Society of International Law, in his concluding remarks.
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