Mexico: Boosting compliance with the law
15-07-2003 News Release 03/78
In cooperation with the Mexican government, the ICRC is organizing a seminar on means of ensuring respect for international humanitarian law which will take place at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City on 15 and 16 July.
The event will be attended by government representatives, research scientists and professors from American and European countries, and experts from several of the organizations in the inter-American system of human rights. They will consider the best way for the 191 States party to the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligation “to respect and to ensure respect” for these universally recognized treaties “in all circumstances”. They will also review the international obligation to act, jointly or individually, in cooperation with the United Nations and in accordance with its Charter, in the event of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I.
The issue of armed groups and their compliance with international humanitarian law will receive particular emphasis.
The seminar will draw attention to key provisions of humanitarian law. It will also be an opportunity to study existing procedures and surveillance mechanisms – and others that must still be devised – to help States respect and ensure respect for the law.
It will be the fourth in a series of five seminars organized by the ICRC at the international level. The previous ones were held in Cairo, Pretoria and Kuala Lumpur. The city of Bruges will play host to the last of these seminars intended to spur compliance with the law.
Further information:
Jaime Arroyo, ICRC Mexico City, tel. ++52 52 55 43 55
Annick Bouvier, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 24 58