Philippines: 2025 Asia and Pacific Regional Conference on International Humanitarian Law

The 2025 Asia and the Pacific Regional Conference on IHL was successfully held in Manila from 11 to 14 August 2025. The conference was co-hosted by the ICRC and the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines with the support of the Inter-Agency Committee on IHL (IAC-IHL) of the Philippines.

With the theme "Galvanising Commitment to International Humanitarian Law: Challenges and Opportunities in the Asia Pacific Region", the conference served as a platform for exchanges between the participating countries on various IHL-related topics of relevance to the region.

These issues included the Global Initiative to Galvanise Political Commitment to IHL, which was launched by the ICRC together with Brazil, China, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and South Africa; the protection of health workers and facilities, detention of prisoners of war and civilians in times of armed conflict (including the Updated Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention); national IHL committees; the updating of the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea; humanitarian disarmament; upholding IHL in the use of information and communication technologies during armed conflict; and management of the dead.

Of note, the Asia Pacific Consultation on National IHL Committees for Workstream 2: National IHL Committees of the Global Initiative to Galvanise Political Commitment to IHL was held on 12 August 2025 as part of the conference.

Government representatives of 24 countries attended the conference. Two of those countries (Bangladesh and Nepal) later joined the Global Initiative to Galvanise Political Commitment to IHL.