At the invitation of Switzerland, the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, the fourth diplomatic meeting to elect the members of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission was held in Bern on 7 December. The sixty-eight States party to the first additional protocol of 1977 to the Geneva Convention that have agreed to recognise the competence of the Commission were entitled to participate in this election.

Fifty-eight States took part in the meeting under the chairmanship of H.E Ambassador Paul Seger from Switzerland and the vice-chairmanship of H.E Ambassador Edgar Mohs Villalta from Costa Rica. During the counting of the votes of the first ballot, the acting 2nd vice-president of the Commission, Maj.-Gen. Anthony Rogers, who did not stand for re-election, was invited by the Chairman to share with the delegations present the report of the Commission for t the last term of office (period 2002 - 2006).

After the first ballot seventeen from eighteen candidates obtained the absolute majority.

The following candidates were elected (in the alphabetical order of their state of origin):

• Prof. Ghalib Djilali (Algeria)
• Prof. Eric David (Belgium)
• Dr. Jeanette Irigoin Barenne (Chile)
• M. Reinado Botero-Bedoya (Colombia)
• Prof. Michael Bothe (Germany)
• Col. Charles Garraway (Great Britain)
• Prof. Stelios Perrakis (Greece)
• Prof. Flavia Lattanzi (Italy)
• Prof. Akira Mayama (Japan)
• Prof. Ian Refalo (Malta)
• Prof. Elzbieta Mikos-Skuza (Poland)
• Capt. Valery Knyazev (Russian Federation)
• Prof. Miodrag Starcevic (Serbia)
• Dr. Gisela Perren-Klingler (Switzerland)
• Col. Hugo Corujo Sanseviero (Uruguay)

The newly-formed Commission was elected for a term of office of five years and will enter into function at its first annual meeting planned to take place in the course of March 2007.