ICRC: SCHOLARS IN ARMENIA DISCUSS CURRENT CHALLENGES OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION
17:00, 31 Oct 2014
Some 50 specialists of international law, researchers and
representatives of the international community, the Armenian
government and civil society are meeting in Yerevan today to discuss
the challenges currently facing humanitarian work.
The event, taking place on the sidelines of the annual Yerevan
conference on international humanitarian law for young researchers,
was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
and moderated by Vladimir Vardanyan, professor of international law
at the Armenian-Russian University and head of the Legal Advisory
Service of Armenia’s Constitutional Court.
Increasingly, humanitarian organizations face difficulty obtaining
access to people suffering the effects of armed conflict or other
violence. “Understanding the legal basis forhumanitarian action in
different situations of violence is essential for building dialogue
with actors on the ground,” said Marco Sassòli, professor at the
University of Geneva, Switzerland.
The online version of the leading casebook on international
humanitarian law, “How Does Law Protect in War,” of which Prof.Sassòli
is co-author, was launched at the event. With the new online platform,
scholars and practitioners alike will have easy access to a virtually
exhaustive and up-to-date source of materials on international
humanitarian law.
“Rules of IHL do not operate in a legal vacuum. Thus International
Human Rights obligations create limitation on the right of states to
deny humanitarian access,” said Levon Gevorgyan, professor at Yerevan
State University, referring to the challenges of humanitarian action.
The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross, which
features articles on the 150thanniversaryof the ICRC’s humanitarian
work, was also presented at the event.