Cape Verde: Portuguese-speaking countries discuss implementationof international humanitarian law at national level
03-06-2008 News Release 08/93
Dakar (ICRC) – A seminar on implementing international humanitarian law will take place on 3 and 4 June in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, for the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa and the Pacific (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Timor-Leste).
Organized by the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Dakar, in partnership with the Red Cross of Cape Verde, the seminar is being held under the auspices of the Cape Verdean government.
“The seminar is intended as a way of helping to set up a Portuguese-speaking network to spur on the implementation of humanitarian law,” said Gianni Volpin, the ICRC’s deputy head of delegation in Dakar. The main topic will be mechanisms for prosecuting and punishing serious violations of the law.
Representatives of the governments and the secretariat of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries, together with experts from Brazil, Portugal and the ICRC, will take part in this seminar, which ties in with similar initiatives the ICRC has taken in recent years for the English- and French-speaking countries of Africa.
The opening ceremony will be chaired by the Cape Verdean foreign minister. A representative of the secretariat of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries, the ICRC’s deputy regional delegate in Dakar and the president of the Red Cross of Cape Verde will be among those in attendance.
For further information, please contact:Gianni Volpin, ICRC Dakar, tel : +221 33 869 13 69
Marçal Izard, ICRC Geneva, tel :+41 22 730 24 58 or +41 79 217 32 24