ECFA Chairman, Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran, has participated in the activities of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law Roundtable, held from 7 to 9 September 2017, on “Forty Years after the Adoption of Additional Protocols I and II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: New Disputes, Parties and Horizons”, where many issues have been discussed, on top of which was the issues of: the non-compliance to Additional Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, by International Forces, including Peacekeeping Forces; the violations that might be committed by those forces, which are also violations of International Humanitarian Law; the failure to hold governments accountable for violations committed by their forces, which makes it imperative to improve the drafting of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) signed between the UN and those States, so that peacekeeping forces are trained and made aware of the provisions of International Humanitarian Law.
There has also been a legal discussion among experts on the use of combatant forces in inter-State disputes, which could cause victims death and injury and unjustified destruction of civilian aims and not to distinguish between war and humanitarian objectives, which is prohibited in accordance to the Additional Protocols, and third common article to the Geneva four agreements. A number of subjects were discussed, including the illegal intervention by the United States and Britain in the use of force in Iraq. Participants also talked about the guarantees provided by international humanitarian law to civilians and to persons detained in prisons and the need to observe humanitarian rules. Also the Round table discussed the issue of the importance of women’s participation in the implementation of international humanitarian law .In addition, the Round table included a session about the subject of the end of the mandate of the war crimes tribunal in the former Yugoslavia in November, and the Court’s achievements were reviewed
