IHFFC represented at the 17th Annual Regional Seminar on International Humanitarian Law: "The 1977 Additional Protocols: 40 Years After"
5 - 8 September 2017, Pretoria
The Seminar is an annual event that brings together various experts and government representatives from throughout Southern Africa and beyond to review and advance the present state of ratification and implementation of IHL in those countries.
The seminar organisers, the ICRC, wrote in their pre-seminar observation: "As we mark the 40thanniversary of the Additional Protocols, one of the concerns raised is that modern conflicts have evolved faster than the law and as such there are no laws to address the challenges that we see today. In fact, an analysis of the historical context in which the Additional Protocols were drafted, shows that the law was designed to address the very challenges that we see today. And as such, what we need is not new laws, but greater compliance with the law”.
In view of the fact that Article 90 of the First Additional Protocol established the basis for the formation of the IHFFC, it was an appropriate time for Dr McNeill Love to reiterate the role, structure, function and mandate of the IHFFC. He was also able to announce that the IHFFC's Ukraine Mission Report was about to be produced and this news was warmly welcomed by the delegates as a potentially exciting new era for the IHFFC's active involvement in its international humanitarian fact-finding role.
