Progress Report
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EN CD/19/20 Original: English For information COUNCIL OF DELEGATES OF THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT MOVEMENT Geneva, Switzerland 8 December 2019 Weapons and International Humanitarian Law (Resolution 7 of the 2013 Council of Delegates) Progress report Document prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross Geneva, October 2019 CD/19/20 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Resolution 7 of the 2013 Council of Delegates commits the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the Movement) to specific actions to address the humanitarian impact of certain weapons. The Resolution invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in cooperation with other components of the Movement, to report to the Council of Delegates on its implementation. This third progress report covers the period from November 2017 to November 2019. It summarizes the key developments, reviews actions taken by the ICRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (National Societies) and highlights future opportunities and challenges. Efforts to promote responsible arms transfers gathered momentum, with the ICRC and National Societies continuing to press for the adoption of effective controls on arms transfers, although challenges in ensuring high standards in the international arms trade remain. There has been notable progress in implementation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, the Convention on Cluster Munitions and Protocol V to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) on Explosive Remnants of War. Key obligations, such as risk education, clearance and victim assistance, are progressively being met at the national level, and the number of States joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions and Protocol V has steadily increased. The ICRC, working closely with National Societies, has continued to promote the universalization and national implementation of these instruments. The past two years have continued to see the devastating consequences of the use in contemporary armed conflicts of explosive weapons with a wide impact area in populated areas. The ICRC maintained its dialogue on the issue with States and armed forces to identify good practices for reducing the risk posed to civilians by the use of such weapons. International discussions on autonomous weapon systems have advanced, with States now agreeing that human control – or “responsibility” – must be retained over weapons and the use of force. The ICRC continued to expand its analysis of the legal, ethical, technical and operational issues, offering proposals to States on how best to develop limits on autonomy in weapon systems in order to mitigate the risks and ensure compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and ethical acceptability. “Cyber weapons” and their potential consequences remained topics of concern. The ICRC continued to engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogue with States on the issue and to participate in academic and public debates. It deepened its understanding of the potential human cost of cyber warfare and clarified notably that cyber tools are capable of being used in compliance with IHL. Discussions in international forums on new technologies of warfare provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of reviewing the legality of new means and methods of warfare. But challenges remain and demand the sustained efforts of the ICRC and National Societies to ensure rigorous legal reviews by States, supported by an updated Guide to the Legal Review of New Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare. Chemical and biological weapons remained high on the international agenda, in particular given the repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq, as well as the use of nerve agents to poison individuals in isolated incidents in Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The ICRC continued to urge all States and non-State armed groups to respect CD/19/20 3 these absolute prohibitions, and to make the necessary preparations to assist any victims in the event of use. 1) INTRODUCTION Resolution 7 on weapons and international humanitarian law, adopted by the 2013 Council of Delegates, calls on States and components of the Movement to take specific actions on a range of humanitarian concerns related to the development, use and availability of weapons.1 It also “invites the ICRC, in cooperation with Movement partners, to report, as necessary, to the Council of Delegates on relevant developments under this Resolution”.2 This is the third progress report on the implementation of Resolution 7, covering the period from November 2017 to November 2019. The first progress report was submitted to the 2015 Council of Delegates, covering the period from November 2013 to November 2015,3 and the second to the 2017 Council of Delegates, covering the period from December 2015 to October 2017. For each weapons topic covered by the Resolution, the present report reviews the key developments, describes the activities undertaken by the Movement and highlights future opportunities and challenges. The ICRC has submitted a separate report to the 2019 Council of Delegates on the implementation of Resolution 4 on nuclear weapons, adopted by the 2017 Council of Delegates. 2) PROGRESS A) RESPONSIBLE ARMS TRANSFERS Operative paragraph 1 of Resolution 7 “calls upon States to promptly sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty and to adopt stringent national control systems and legislation to ensure compliance with the Treaty’s norms”. Key developments The ICRC and National Societies have continued to raise public awareness of the human cost of poorly regulated transfers of arms and ammunition and of the importance of effective global controls on such transfers, based on respect for IHL. Movement action 2017–2019 ICRC The ICRC continued to promote States’ accession to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and to encourage its faithful implementation, including at meetings convened by the ICRC, such as the 2nd Pacific Islands Roundtable on International Humanitarian Law held in Samoa in May 2019, the Sixth Regional Seminar on IHL Implementation for CIS States held in Belarus in November 2017 and the regional IHL conference in Asia-Pacific held in Indonesia in September 2018. The ICRC also organized a two-day seminar on 1 Weapons and international humanitarian law (Resolution 7), Council of Delegates, CD/13/R7, 17–18 November 2013. 2 Ibid. para. 7. 3 Weapons and international humanitarian law (Report on the implementation of Resolution 7 of the 2013 Council of Delegates), Council of Delegates, CD/15/14, 7 December 2015. CD/19/20 4 weapons laws and the ATT in Ethiopia in April 2018 and an event on the ATT and the Nairobi Protocol4 in Kenya in June 2018, attended by East African government officials. The ICRC provided input to processes addressing ATT implementation in Canada, France, Switzerland and the European Union. It gave experts from Tajikistan’s National Centre of Legislation support in conducting and publishing a study on the national implementation of arms transfers in light of the ATT. The ICRC also took the opportunity of the Third Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons held in New York in June 2018 to promote high standards in the international arms trade, and contributed to the debate at the UN Security Council on “Silencing the Guns in Africa” in February 2019. High-level ICRC officials participated in the Fourth Conference of States Parties to the ATT (CSP4) in Tokyo in August 2018 (director of international law and policy) and in the Fifth Conference (CSP5) in Geneva in August 2019 (vice-president). The ICRC also took part in public events in Geneva and New York to mark the treaty’s 100-State-Party milestone. It furthermore produced a working paper to assist States in assessing the risk of exported arms being used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender-based violence that amount to serious violations of IHL (a theme of CSP5). National Societies The Belgian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and the Swedish Red Cross held bilateral meetings with their respective national authorities to promote the faithful implementation of the ATT. The Norwegian Red Cross worked with the ICRC to encourage greater involvement of National Societies from major arms-exporting countries in promoting effective implementation of the treaty. Future opportunities and challenges With weapons continuing to flow into areas where serious violations of IHL are commonplace, the ICRC is concerned about the gap between the duty to ensure respect for IHL in arms transfers and the actual transfer practices of too many States. This threatens the credibility of arms-transfer control regimes such as the ATT. The ICRC and National Societies, as appropriate and according to their capacities, should continue to urge the broad adherence of States to the ATT and the faithful implementation of its obligations, in line with States’ duty to ensure respect for IHL. This includes working together to monitor proper application of the treaty, to deepen their understanding of States’ arms-transfer practices and to support authorities’ efforts to universalize and strengthen implementation of the treaty. B) LANDMINES, CLUSTER MUNITIONS AND OTHER EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR Operative paragraph 2 of Resolution 7 “requests that all components of the Movement increase their efforts – according to their respective capacities – to implement the 2009 Movement Strategy on Landmines, Cluster Munitions and other Explosive Remnants of War, and in particular to promote the norms of international humanitarian law applicable to these weapons, to conduct activities aimed at reducing the impact of weapon contamination, and to provide victims of weapons with comprehensive assistance, and requests that the components of the Movement provide information on the 4 The Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa, Nairobi, 21 April 2004. CD/19/20 5 implementation of the Movement Strategy to the ICRC for monitoring and reporting purposes, in accordance with Resolution 6 of the 2009 Council of Delegates”.