179 episodes

The Humanitarian Law & Policy blog is a unique space for timely analysis and debate on international humanitarian law (IHL) issues and the policies that shape humanitarian action.

To read all the blog posts, please visit https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/

ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog ICRC Law and Policy

    • News
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

The Humanitarian Law & Policy blog is a unique space for timely analysis and debate on international humanitarian law (IHL) issues and the policies that shape humanitarian action.

To read all the blog posts, please visit https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/

    Falling under the radar: algorithmic bias and military applications of AI

    Falling under the radar: algorithmic bias and military applications of AI

    Last week, states parties met for the first session of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) in 2024. This debate featured the GGE’s most substantive discussion to date about bias under the topic “risk mitigation and confidence building”, including around a working paper dedicated to bias by Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and Panama.

    In this post, Dr. Ingvild Bode, Associate Professor at the Center for War Studies (University of Southern Denmark) argues that bias is as much a social as a technical problem and that addressing it therefore requires going beyond technical solutions. She holds that the risks of algorithmic bias need to receive more dedicated attention as the GGE’s work turns towards thinking around operationalisation. These arguments are based on the author’s presentation at the GGE side event “Fixing Gender Glitches in Military AI: Mitigating Unintended Biases and Tackling Risks” organised by UNIDIR on 6 March 2024.

    • 14 min
    The transmission of information by the ICRC's Central Tracing Agency in int't armed conflicts

    The transmission of information by the ICRC's Central Tracing Agency in int't armed conflicts

    Two years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Central Tracing Agency activated a dedicated Bureau for the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the first time since the Gulf Wars. The role of such a Bureau includes helping locate missing persons. While this is a key function of the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency, there is more to its role specifically during an international armed conflict that is worth re-discovering.

    In this post, Natalie Klein-Kelly, ICRC’s Transformation Programme Manager for the Central Tracing Agency, Karen Loehner, ICRC’s National Information Bureau Manager, and Jelena Milosevic Lepotic, Head of Protection of Family Links unit, share their reflections on the contemporary relevance and the historical origins of the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency. They show the importance of reviving certain activities, such as the transmission of information on protected persons between the parties, that is specific to this type of conflict that humanitarian actors may be less used to operating in, following past decades that were dominated by non-international armed conflicts and other situations of violence.

    • 11 min
    From content to harm: how harmful information contributes to civilian harm

    From content to harm: how harmful information contributes to civilian harm

    From traditional media to social media, coordinated information campaigns or operations, the ways in which harmful information can enable or aggravate risks of harm for civilians are constantly evolving. However, evidence of risk factors remains incomplete, and solutions elusive.

    In this post, Chris Brew, a former Protection Associate with the ICRC, looks to previous examples of harmful information (often referred to as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech or “MDH”) resulting in civilian harm to identify patterns in underlying risk factors to inform when and in what circumstances civilian harm may result from such information.

    • 14 min
    Towards national implementation of IHL: Arab states pledge their commitment

    Towards national implementation of IHL: Arab states pledge their commitment

    The work and contribution of national committees on IHL (NCIHLs) can be relevant in a range of circumstances, whether a country is at peace, emerging from conflict, still affected by past conflict or involved in one or more current armed conflicts. Many successful national structures are proof that if they function efficiently and have the required capacities, NCIHLs can provide considerable support to states in implementing their commitments under international humanitarian law (IHL) and achieving policy objectives in this area.

    The roads to national implementation of IHL can vary, creating new opportunities through events that arise, and actors encountered along the way. In this post, Yasmin Bedir, ICRC Communications Officer for the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, provides a recap of the Twelfth Regional Meeting of Arab National Committees on IHL. The meeting, run with contributions from Dr Omar Mekky, Regional Legal Coordinator for the Near and Middle East Region at the ICRC, resulted in a dynamic two-year action plan with pledged commitments on specific themes and obligations for the implementation of IHL.

    • 9 min
    Responding to the humanitarian impacts of improvised anti-personnel mines

    Responding to the humanitarian impacts of improvised anti-personnel mines

    Though remarkable progress has been made towards the eradication of anti-personnel landmines (APM) since the adoption of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) in 1997, casualties from APM are, alarmingly, on the rise, including due to the increased use of improvised APM, mostly associated with non-state actors. Whereas efforts to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) tend to centre on military and security approaches, improvised APM are a type of IED whose devastating humanitarian impacts can and must be addressed through humanitarian mine action and within the framework of the APMBC.

    In this post, Josephine Dresner, Director of Policy and Strategic Partnerships with the humanitarian mine action organisation Mine Advisory Group (MAG), points to the challenges facing states contaminated with improvised landmines in the Sahel and West Africa. Drawing on lessons learned from MAG’s work in the Middle East since 2016, she presents elements of a humanitarian mine action response to addressing improvised mines and explains how the APMBC can be used to support affected states in their efforts to fulfil their obligations under the Convention.

    • 16 min
    Unblocking aid: the EU’s 2023 shift in sanctions policy to safeguard humanitarian efforts

    Unblocking aid: the EU’s 2023 shift in sanctions policy to safeguard humanitarian efforts

    The year 2023 marked a significant shift in how the EU makes space for humanitarian action in the design of sanctions, a foreign policy tool that has traditionally raised concerns due to its potential to hinder impartial humanitarian efforts. Mounting evidence and advocacy on the need for sanctions to include robust humanitarian safeguards to comply with international humanitarian law requirements resulted in the December 2022 adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2664, which explicitly excludes humanitarian action from UN financial sanctions, initiating a transformative approach towards incorporating humanitarian exemptions in sanctions design.

    In this post, ICRC Advisers Sophie Huvé, Guillemette Moulin and Tristan Ferraro explore progress made in recent years at the EU level, as well as the remaining challenges. They suggest that the EU’s recent policy changes, aligning with UN Security Council Resolution 2664, should be set as a default in future sanctions designs, ensuring that humanitarian action is protected and facilitated within the framework of international humanitarian law (IHL).

    • 17 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
1 Rating

1 Rating

Top Podcasts In News

The Rest Is Politics
Goalhanger Podcasts
Black Box
The Guardian
The News Agents
Global
Electoral Dysfunction
Sky News
Leading
Goalhanger Podcasts
Newscast
BBC News

You Might Also Like

Humanity in War (ICRC)
Humanity in War
Hold Your Fire!
International Crisis Group
The Horn
International Crisis Group
TNH | Audio reads
The New Humanitarian
The New Humanitarian
The New Humanitarian
Global News Podcast
BBC World Service