Yesterday, the IHL Summer School wrapped up with a moot court exercise and a celebratory lunch. We would like to thank all the wonderful speakers and participants for their contributions during the week!
On Day 6 of the IHL Summer School, Prof. Helen Duffy spoke on human rights during armed conflict and the interplay between human rights and IHL. Ms. Katja Schöberl spoke on the enforcement and implementation of IHL. In the afternoon, the participants got to experience the application of IHL in practice, during a paintball simulation of armed conflict.
The Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum is proud to announce that one of our IHL Clinic teams, consisting of LL.M. students Digvijay Rewatkar, David Koeller, Camila Dupret Torres and Cristina San Juan Serrano, officially handed over their report consisting of case studies on compliance with IHL to Ms. Juliane Garcia Ravel (ICRC Geneva) on Tuesday. The report is part of an ongoing cooperation with the ICRC. The supervision of the report was undertaken by PhD Fellow Sofia Poulopoulou, LL.M. and senior supervisors Christine Tremblay, LL.M. and Catherine Harwood, LL.M. The IHL Clinic is directed by Dr. Robert Heinsch.
On the 5th day of our IHL Summer School, the participants first had a great interactive lecture on the law of non-international armed conflict with Ms. Mireille Hector. As the second lecture of the day, Dr. Giulio Bartolini spoke on humanitarian assistance and disaster response law. In the afternoon, Prof. William Schabas and the participants had an in-depth discussion on the interplay between IHL and international criminal law.
Day 4 of our IHL Summer School! In the morning, the participants learned more on the conduct of hostilities. Prof. Terry Gill lectured on the general framework of conduct of hostilities under IHL. Prof. Paul Ducheine gave a practical insight into the targeting cycle of national armed forces. In the afternoon, the group got a deeper insight into the workings of the ICC during a visit to its premises, hosted by Ms. Eleni Chaitidou and Mr. Drazan Djukic. In the evening, the participants were invited to a reception hosted by the Mayor and the Aldermen of The Hague.
On Day 3 of our IHL Summer School, Prof. Horst Fischer talked about the protection of civilians under IHL, Mr. Jeroen van den Boogaard lectured about combatants and prisoners of war, and Ms. Juliane Garcia Ravel gave an interesting insight into the role of the ICRC in the dissemination of IHL. At the end of the day, one of our IHL Clinic teams presented some of the results of the Clinic's ongoing research project in cooperation with the ICRC, on specific instances of compliance with IHL.
On the 3rd day of our IHL summer school, we had the honor to have Prof. Horst Fischer talk about the "protection of civilians", as always delivering an inspiring lecture and giving our participants to apply the knowledge immediately to difficult real world problems...
For the afternoon session of day 2 of our IHL summer school, the two moderators Ms. Mirjam De Bruin and Dr. Robert Heinsch welcomed the participants at the headquarters of the Netherlands Red Cross, where the they got an introduction to the "classification of conflicts", could visit the Red Cross Archives, and received important information about the work of its Tracing Service. All lot of new information!
On the second day of our IHL summer course, Prof. John Dugard gives an inspiring lecture on "International Humanitarian Law: Past, Present, and Future", not shying away from discussing difficult challenges for IHL in current conflict situations...
Today, our 39 IHL summer school participants from 23 countries were welcomed by Dr. Robert Heinsch of the KGF and Ms. Mirjam de Bruin of The Netherlands Red Cross at the Leiden University Campus Wijnhaven in The Hague. A wonderful mixture of people with impressive backgrounds literally from all over the world, who are all eager to learn about IHL in theory and practice during the next six days of the summer school ... A warm welcome!
