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The International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL) is an independent, “non-profit, humanitarian association having social values as its objectives”, founded in 1970 in Sanremo, Italy. Its headquarters are situated in Villa Ormond, while a liaison office of the Institute is established in
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. The main purpose of the Institute is to promote international humanitarian law and related subjects. The Institute works in collaboration with international organisations dedicated to the humanitarian cause, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It has operational relations with the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
, the ''Organisation International de la Francophonie'' and the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is a worldwide humanitarian aid organization that reaches 160 million people each year through its 192-member National Societies. It acts before, during and after disas ...
. Furthermore, it has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a p ...
.
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Organisation and bodies

The Institute is composed of six statutory bodies namely the General Assembly, the President, the Council, the Executive Board, the Secretary-General and the Treasurer. The General Assembly, including all Members of the Institute, establishes the general policy of the Institute. It meets in an ordinary session each year to approve the annual budget and final accounts. The President is elected by the Council every four years and may be re-elected for a second consecutive term up to a maximum of eight consecutive years. The President is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute and has the primary responsibility to ensure that the Institute pursues its purpose and objectives in conformity with the Statutes and the general policy established by the General Assembly. Current President of the Institute is Professor Edoardo Greppi. Former President, Judge Fausto Pocar, is Honorary President of the Institute. Lieutenant General (ret.) Giorgio Battisti (Italy), Professor Nils Melzer (Switzerland) and Ms Claire Legras (France) hold the position of Vice-Presidents. The Council is composed of twelve members elected by the General Assembly for a period of four years, each of whom may be re-elected for a total period of twelve consecutive years. The Council oversees the management of the Institute, determining the programme of activities, elects the President and Vice-Presidents and appoints the Secretary-General and Treasurer, who then form the Executive Board. The Municipality of Sanremo and the
Italian Red Cross The Italian Red Cross (IRC, it, Croce Rossa Italiana or ''CRI'') is the Italian national Red Cross society. The Italian Red Cross was one of the original founding members of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1919. History Early ...
are ''ex officio'' members of the Council of the Institute. Currently, personalities of the diplomatic world, judges, scholars and military officers are among the Institute's Council members: * Lieutenant General (ret.) Giorgio BATTISTI (Italy), Former Commanding General of Italian Army Training and Doctrine Command ; * Dr. Helen DURHAM (ICRC), Director of Law and Policy, International Committee of the Red Cross; * Brigadier General Dr. Karl EDLINGER (Austria), Legal Adviser, Austrian Armed Forces; * Associate Professor Chris JENKS (USA) SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas; * Ms Claire LEGRAS (France), Director for Legal Affairs at the General Secretariat of the French Ministry of Defence; * Ambassador Marja LEHTO (Finland), Member of the UN International Law Commission; * Colonel Carl MARCHAND (Switzerland), Head, IHL and Human Rights Section, Swiss Armed Forces; * Professor Nils MELZER (Switzerland), UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; Professor, University of Glasgow; Human Rights Chair, Geneva Academy of IHL and Human Rights; * Mr. Anthony MORRIS (UNHCR), Chief Learning Officer, Global Learning and Development Centre; * Mr. Johan RAUTENBACH (IOM), Legal Counsel and Director of the Office of Legal Affairs, IOM; * Dr. Heike SPIEKER (Germany), Deputy Director, International Cooperation Division, German Red Cross; * Brigadier General (ret’d) Jan Peter SPIJK (The Netherlands) Honorary President, International Society for Military Law and the Law of War; * Brigadier General Darren STEWART OBE (United Kingdom), Head, Operational Law, British Army Headquarters; * Professor Bakhtiyar TUZMUKHAMEDOV (Russia) Vice-President of the Russian Association of International Law; *
Giorgio Blais Giorgio Blais (Turin, April 14, 1935) is a major-general of the Italian Army, risen to public notoriety for having crossed, on foot and alone during summer of 2000, Italy from Piedmont down to Sicily. He started on June 16 from the top of Rocc ...
, Major General (Italy), Vice-President (1999-2007) * Professor Gabriella VENTURINI (Italy) Professor Emerita, University of Milan; * MUNICIPALITY OF SANREMO (''ex officio'' member); * ITALIAN RED CROSS (''ex officio'' member). Members of the Institute are of different nationalities. They are persons that have particularly distinguished themselves through competence or activities in fields of specific interest to the Organisation. Institutions significantly contributing to the work of the Institute may also be admitted as members. Qualified persons and academic institutions, as also nations and international intergovernmental organisations contributing to the activities of the Institute, may be admitted as Associate members but may not vote.


Training and activities

The Institute provides an annual programme of training activities in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Refugee Law and associated subjects. These activities are designed for a diverse, international and multicultural audience with participation welcomed from military personnel, government officials, diplomats, experts, representatives of non-governmental organisations and students from around the world. Our courses, often conducted in collaboration with interested international institutions and countries, are delivered in various languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Portuguese) either in Sanremo or in collaboration with partner institutions around the world.


Military courses on law of armed conflict (LOAC), international humanitarian law (IHL) and related subjects

To foster the development of knowledge in International Humanitarian Law, the Institute structures its training at three levels, which develop progressively and all emphasise the practical application of IHL: * ''IHL Foundation Courses'': provide personnel with a practical introduction to the Law of Armed Conflict delivered from an operational military perspective; * ''Advanced Courses on IHL'': an intensive course designed for experienced military/civilian legal advisers, military officers and those from Government or International Organisations with an in depth knowledge of IHL/LOAC; * ''Specialised IHL Courses'': aimed at personnel who require an enhanced practical understanding of a specific area of IHL. Among these specific training programmes: Courses for Directors of Training Programmes in IHL; the Peace Support Operations Course; the Detention and Captured Persons Course; the Targeting Course; the Rules of Engagement Course; the Naval Operations and the Law Course. * ''IHL Workshops'': designed to address the needs of the IHL practitioners who face the most difficult legal challenges in the field. These activities are usually of shorter duration with less formal training. The emphasis is on the exchange of views and experiences between participants and instructors in order to reach a deeper understanding of the subject and thus provide a cutting-edge perspective. At all levels of training, the Institute aims at complementing plenary presentations with interactive discussion, debate and exercises designed to strengthen each participant’s knowledge and facilitate the sharing of different national approaches and best practice.


International Refugee law, Statelessness, Internal Displacement and Migration law courses

Courses in these areas aim at filling the gaps in knowledge and skills of government and civil society officials engaged in work with people in need of protection. Through its training, capacity-building, and horizontal sharing of experiences, the Institute advocates for the safeguarding of rights in a way that complements and adds on the efforts of donors in the field of protection of refugees, IDPs, stateless persons and migrants. These training programmes strike a fine balance between theory and practice, allowing the audience to exchange experiences and ideas, and utilize the participants’ existing skills to deal with complex legal issues in a pragmatic manner. These courses are delivered in close collaboration with
UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrat ...
and other key partners such as the IOM, the ''Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons'' and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.


International Disaster Law course

The course is jointly organized by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in collaboration with the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is a worldwide humanitarian aid organization that reaches 160 million people each year through its 192-member National Societies. It acts before, during and after disas ...
, the ''International Disaster Law Project'', the
Italian Red Cross The Italian Red Cross (IRC, it, Croce Rossa Italiana or ''CRI'') is the Italian national Red Cross society. The Italian Red Cross was one of the original founding members of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1919. History Early ...
and the ''EU Jean Monnet Module on “International and European Disaster Law” Roma Tre University''.


Organisation of conferences, workshops and round tables


The Sanremo Round Table



Research and publications

The Institute has become increasingly involved in research activities, study and analysis. It publishes texts, essays and monographs that aim to contribute to the awareness of issues relevant to international humanitarian law and its different aspects, refugee law and migration law. The " Sanremo Manual on International Law applicable to Armed Conflict at Sea", which was compiled between 1988 and 1994, still remains the most consulted manual at Naval Military Academies all over the world and an essential work of reference on a global scale. The San Remo Manual is currently being updated by international experts and practitioners. The "Sanremo Handbook on the Rules of Engagement (RoE)", published in November 2009, represents the only work of this type which sets out to explain in a practical way the complex procedures and methodology governing the development and implementation of Rules of Engagement. It has been translated into the 6 official languages of the United Nations as well as Bosnian, Hungarian and Thai. More recently the Institute supported the drafting of the "UNESCO Manual on the Protection of Cultural Property". The Manual, compiled by a team of internationally-renowned experts, serves as a practical guide to the implementation by military forces of the rules governing the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. It combines a military-focused account of the international legal obligations of states and individuals with suggestions as to best practice at the different levels of command during the conducting of military operations by land, sea or air. The "Manual on the Law of Non-International Armed Conflict" which was published in March 2006, reflects the developments registered by humanitarian rules at a time where conflicts too often differ from classical warfare between States bound by the Hague Conventions and the Geneva Protocols. The "Handbook on Integrating Gender Perspectives into International Operations" – the Sanremo Handbook on Gender – was published on 2019 and represents the concrete contribution of the Sanremo Institute to the promotion of gender perspectives with regard to the protection of specific groups of vulnerable individuals in conflict areas. This Handbook, prepared by international civil and military experts convened in Sanremo by the Institute, provides a practical framework for gender mainstreaming in the training of the military, police officers and civilians who are involved in conflict scenarios. For over 20 years now, since 1998, the Institute has then continued to produce a series of publications dedicated to the proceedings of the Round Table on current issues of international humanitarian law. The last Sanremo Round Table, held in Sanremo from 4 to 6 September 2019, addressed the issue of “''Whither the human in armed conflict? IHL implications of new technology in warfare''”. Finally, every three months the Institute distributes and publishes on its official website a “Newsletter”, which describes its important initiatives and activities.


See also

*
International humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war ('' jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pr ...
* Refugee law *
Internally displaced person An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. ...
*
Statelessness In international law, a stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". Some stateless people are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are s ...
* Geneva Conventions (1949) * Sanremo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea *See
Legal assessments of the Gaza flotilla raid Many legal assessments of the Gaza flotilla raid were published subsequent to the event. International law experts (and non-lawyers) differed over the legality of the action by Israel. The force necessary to respond to violent resistance and whethe ...


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:International Institute Of Humanitarian Law Human rights organisations based in Italy International organisations based in Italy Sanremo Maison de la Paix Organizations established in 1970 1970 establishments in Italy