ICRC releases monumental work on Customary Int'l Humanitarian Law

BY SARATH Malalasekera

INTERNATIONAL Jurist Christie G. Weeramantry was the chief guest at a ceremony where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released a monumental work on Customary International Humanitarian Law.

Running to almost four thousand pages and edited by Jean-Marie Henckearts and Louise Doswals-Beck, this study collects together all the basic principles from all sources as well as State practices from across the world.

The work has taken ten years to complete and no protect of this scale has ever been attempted before.

Judge Weeramantry has returned from India after several engagements in the field of International Law and Peace Education.

The ICRC organised a major Conference for this book launch attended by leading international lawyers from across the world. Judge Weeramantry delivered the opening address in launching the book and also made the closing address of the two day Conference.

In his closing address Judge Weeramantry stated that this monumental work should be further enriched in the light of various religious and traditional practices and that a major study should now be launched to examine all religious and traditional teachings on the subject.

Judge Weeramantry also suggested the preparation of a bench book on International Humanitarian Law designed to assist the global judiciary on lines similar to the judicial bench book that was designed by him on environmental law as part of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

The next Conference attended by Judge Weermantry was the annual meeting of the Indian Society of International Law, where he addressed in detail about the various developments in International Criminal Courts and International Criminal Justice and methods for improving their reach and efficiency.

Judge Weeramantry, being the Chief Advisor to this schools, delivered the keynote address on "Reflections on recent development in International Criminal Law."

He examined the strengths and weaknesses of the current system of International Criminal Justice and made various suggestions for its improvement.

The Conference was followed by a Conference of Chief Justices arranged by Jagdish Gandhi of Lucknow. This is a major world event of Peace Education as Mr. Gandhi has introduced Peace Education into all subjects taught at his twenty schools in Lucknow, with a total of almost thirty thousand students.

This experiment has already received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education and every year Chief Justices of the world are invited to attend this conference and observe the Peace related work done by the children.