What is EHL?

Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) is an international education programme for young people between 13 and 18 years of age. The objective of the programme is to introduce adolescents to the basic rules of international humanitarian law (IHL), which aims to protect life and human dignity during armed conflict and to reduce and prevent the suffering and destruction that result from war.

Developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in close association with the Educational Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and with the active participation of twenty sites from all parts of the world, EHL offers 30 hours of educational activities. Building on the experiences of a wide variety of countries, the programme is transnational in scope, cutting across political, social, religious, and cultural contexts, and can easily be adapted to diverse educational settings.

The final version of the programme was published in English, Arabic, Spanish, and French in early 2002, and distributed worldwide. Today, completed versions exist in: Albanian, Amharic, Bosnian, Croatian, Danish, Farsi, German, Greek, Hebrew, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Plans are being made for versions in other languages (in some cases the process of translation is already under way). These languages include: Bulgarian, Chinese, Estonian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Mongolian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, and Slovenian. When this process is complete, the EHL education programme will be available in 38 languages.

EHL project development work began in 1999 with the establishment of a network of some 20 sites, from all parts of the world, to identify interest and set up an informal international group of experts, including representatives of Ministries of Education, national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and specialized organisations, as well as independent education and subject-area experts. Throughout the research and curriculum development process, this network provided information from the viewpoint of the local learning environments, conducting some 35 focus group discussions with more than 600 young people.

The qualitative data collected helped to shape the design of the teaching materials. Associated sites reviewed and/or tried out prototype materials with youth groups to feed into the process of curricular development. This consultation largely confirmed the working hypothesis underlying the development of the EHL modules—that ethical explorations of humanitarian law and the experience of war are perceived as relevant and meaningful learning, regardless of the local experience of armed conflict.

Rationale

EHL was developed on the premise that education in IHL is relevant, meaningful, and useful for young people in all societies. The subject is pertinent and timely everywhere - regardless of a particular country’s experience of armed conflict or other situations of violence - for a number of reasons:

1. Armed conflicts and other situations of violence are taking place in many parts of the world today and young people are increasingly affected by them.

2. Many societies appear to be becoming more prone to various forms of violence.

3. Young people, in greater numbers than ever, are exposed to media coverage of such violence as well as to forms of entertainment that downplay the effects of violence.

4. In times of acute social and political tensions, such as post-conflict situations or periods of social reconstruction, education programmes such as EHL may have an indirect pacifying effect.

5. States party to the Geneva Conventions have an obligation, both in times of peace as in times of war, to spread knowledge of international humanitarian law (IHL) as widely as possible, including to the civilian population. The world's 194 States have all ratified the Geneva Conventions, making those treaties the first in modern history to achieve universal acceptance.

Structure and methodology

The resource pack comprises five core modules and didactical tools for teachers and learners, designed to enhance exploration of the following subject matters:

Module 1: the nature of the humanitarian act and the role of bystanders;

Module 2: the need to regulate armed conflicts and the basic rules of IHL;

Module 3: the implementation and enforcement of IHL, the question of responsibility;

Module 4: the need to try and punish perpetrators of violations and the importance of reconciliation;

Module 5: the need for and the requirements of humanitarian action in times of armed conflict.

The programme provides teaching materials that can be integrated into secondary curricula as a subject on its own, or as parts of a number of existing subject areas. The programme can be delivered as an optional after-school activity or taught in out-of-school settings such as youth development programmes or summer camps.

The content of EHL is related to academic subjects such as civics, social studies, philosophy, history, law, and literature. The interactive teaching methods and critical pedagogy reinforce many important academic and life skills such as communication, disagreeing respectfully, reasoning, research, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Learning outcomes

EHL seeks to help young people embrace the principles of humanity in their daily lives.

In particular, it fosters:

• understanding of the need to respect life and human dignity;
• understanding of humanitarian issues and of the various aspects of IHL as well as the complexities of its application;
• interest in international current events and humanitarian action and the ability to analyse them knowledgeably;
• capacity to view conflict situations at home and abroad from a humanitarian perspective;
• active involvement in community service or other forms of engagement for the most vulnerable members of society.

More generally, EHL contributes to developing social awareness in young people and sharpens their sense of civic responsibility. EHL emphasizes the importance of protecting life and human dignity during armed conflict and, by extension, at all times. Thus, it makes a unique contribution to citizenship education at every level: local, national and global. It can be used in any political context and educational system, and its flexible framework allows for easy incorporation of future developments in IHL.

Teacher Training and Implementation

EHL was developed to assist governments in their efforts to spread knowledge of IHL, as required by the Geneva Conventions. The programme is designed to be implemented by Ministries of Education. To ensure EHL's success and effectiveness, education authorities must take ownership of the programme and be closely involved in delivering EHL to young people. If needed, the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies may provide technical and academic support and contribute to the training and professional development of teachers.

The ICRC's strategic goal is that education in IHL becomes fully integrated in the formal curricula of secondary schools around the world, as part of basic education. Hence, the ICRC is committed to strengthening the EHL community of practice. It is the ICRC’s hope that more states will begin to implement EHL and that those already using the programme will sustain their efforts.

Complementing efforts at the national level, inter-governmental organizations have demonstrated a growing interest in the EHL programme. In December 2003, for example, on behalf of the European Union, the Council of the EU pledged to support the EHL programme. The subsequent European Education Leadership Seminar, held in May 2006, confirmed that EHL responds to European educational priorities. Moreover, through the African Union and the League of Arab States, member states have positively reviewed the programme and recommended its official adoption.

States and other entities currently working to implement EHL

• Africa: Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa
• Americas: Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, United States, Uruguay
• Asia: Australia, China (including Hong Kong), India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand
• Europe: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, UNMIK/PISG Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
• Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Palestinian autonomous/occupied territories, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen

EHL Virtual Campus

The EHL Virtual Campus serves as a web-based resource centre and online community for the programme. It aims to support the growing EHL community by providing ongoing EHL training and access to programme resources via the internet.

To join this community and to discover the range of teaching materials, lessons plans, discussion activities, video clips and more, visit: ehl.icrc.org