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IHL YAC

– crash course

IHL in the Bay

Liaison Meeting Presentation

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IHL in the Bay - Who are we?

East Bay I nternational Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaign (IHL YAC)

Advocates: Kimberly Cui, Kelly Quach, Tejasvini Ramesh and Victoria Liu

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What is our campaign?

Purpose: educating and spreading awareness about International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

Providing unbiased, accurate information

Goals: To raise awareness about IHL in the special theme in context of “Education in War”

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What is IHL?

International Humanitarian Law: a set of rules that seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict

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2 aspects

International Treaty Law

Customary International Law

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Red Cross/Crescent: 7 fundamental principles

Humanity

Impartiality

Voluntary Service

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Red Cross/Crescent: 7 fundamental principles

Neutrality

Unity

Independence

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Red Cross/Crescent: 7 fundamental principles

Universality

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4 Principles of IHL

The Principle of Military Necessity

What is necessary?

The Principle of Distinction

Who is who?

Victoria

Now I’m going to cover the 4 principles of IHL and when we’re looking at each, a few questions need to be asked.

The first is the principle of the Military Necessity. Combatants need to identify what is necessary. This question can be answered by identifying a specific and legitimate purpose for whatever action ensues. In addition, that purpose has to be only necessary to defeat the enemy, providing a military advantage.

Next is the Principle of Distinction. Who is who? Namely, who are the civilians and who are the combatants? Everyone is considered a civilian unless there is evidence that they are engaging in the conflict. In addition, combatants must be identifiable from civilians. This could be through wearing a uniform. Keep in mind that medical personnel and chaplains, who provide religious and spiritual support, are not considered combatants even though they are members of the armed force. Combatants should also distinguish between civilian objects versus military objectives.

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4 Principles of IHL

3. The Principle of Proportionality

How to be proportional?

4. The Principle of Limiting Unnecessary Suffering

Unnecessary is the key word

Victoria

The Principle of Proportionality requires combatants to be proportional. How does that occur? Combatants need to determine if the amount of collateral damage, or civilian impact, exceeds the military advantage that is gained. This might be subjective because it’s hard to measure the worth of each group which is why combatants need to think rationally and be responsible when making their own judgements. The best case scenario is when there is no loss from the civilian side.

Last but not least, the Principle of Limiting Unnecessary Suffering is sort of self-explanatory, in which combatants are limiting the suffering of both enemies and civilians to a certain degree. This is mainly applied to the types of warfare being used, in which the objective is to not cause more suffering than enough to accomplish a goal.

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2021 IHL Theme: Education in War

TW: Explosive sounds

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Education in War Facts

Girls in war-affected countries are 2.5 times more likely to be displaced from school
Average of 70:1 ratio between students and teachers
Only 3% of humanitarian aid is dedicated to education
~25 million children do not have access to education in places of conflict

Why are schools important?

Write your answers in the chat!!

Victoria

Source: https://www.unicef.org/education/emergencies

So you might be wondering, what does this have to do with us? Well, let’s talk about this liaison meeting. In real life, we would be sitting in a room, talking in person, and I would be standing up to present. But that’s not the case due to the lockdown, so we are meeting online. The same goes with remote learning. We are unable to meet in person so our education transfers to an online platform, which is fine but there could be wifi issues and background noises. In other words, our education is compromised. The same goes for students attending school in war-zones. They’re education is also compromised, but this issue drags on for often years at a time.

Girls in war-affected countries are 2.5 times more likely to be displaced from school. There’s an average of 70 to 1 ratio between students and teachers. That’s approximately twice the number of students in my classes and more than three times for the state average of 20.9 students to a teacher. Only 3% of humanitarian aid is dedicated to education, and around 25 million children do not have access to education in places of conflict. So let’s stop and consider, why are schools important? Please input your answers in the chat.

I see some reasons in the chat such as … and all of them are true. If anyone wants to unmute and share out why they think schools are important, feel free to do so. The ones we had in mind were:

Protection: from abuse, recruitment into armed groups

Resources: food, water, hygiene equipment

Mental support: should be a safe haven from outside trauma

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In 2019, 35 countries were involved in some sort of armed conflict (18% of countries)

Afghanistan
Yemen
Syria
Mexico
Turkey
Somalia
Iraq
Libya

Any patterns?

What is happening RIGHT NOW?

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Join the Kahoot game! https://kahoot.it

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Upcoming IHL-related events

Register on Volunteer Connection! (open to all)

Feb 27:

Feb 28:

March 16:

This was just a quick IHL crash course, learn more about it at other events!

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POST-ACTIVITY SURVEY

https://tinyurl.com/y6flnkno

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Picture!

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@ihlinthebay

stay updated!

Thank you all for listening! :)

Follow us on Instagram

(we will follow back :))

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Quick meeting recap

What is our campaign?

- Our purpose is educating and spreading awareness about International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

What is IHL?

- International Humanitarian Law: a set of rules that seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict

7 fundamental principles of IHL

- Humanity, Impartiality, Voluntary Service, Neutrality, Unity, Independence, Universality