THE 3RD HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE Joris Voorhoeve, Editor www.thehagueuniversity.com/haguepeace www.facebook.com/haguepeace The Hague University of Applied Sciences, 2015 “Modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the skies like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven’t learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters” Dr. Martin Luther King, 1968 CONTENTS Report on The 3rd Hague Peace Conference 7 Abbreviations List 16 Towards a New International Architecture in Pursuance of Global Peace 17 Modernizing International Humanitarian Law: The Necessity of Dealing with the Challenges of 21st Century Warfare 22 Part 1: Reform of the Security Council 26 Part 2: International Humanitarian Law 45 Part 3: The Responsibility to Protect 66 Part 4: Other Proposals 73 Citations 80 Participants List 99 Plenary Speakers 100 Workshop Speakers 102 Feedback on The 3rd Hague Peace Conference 105 Acknowledgements 110 The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University 6 REPORT ON THE 3RD HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE THE 3RD HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE was originally scheduled for 1915, but World War I broke out in 1914 and the conference did not convene. One hundred years later, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) demonstrated its commitment to peace and justice by ensuring that the 3rd Hague Peace Conference took place. This time not by emissaries of states, but by representatives of the new generation: students in the 21st century. Seventy-four students from 33 countries attended the event. The 3rd Hague Peace Conference Hague Peace The 3rd 7 WEDNESDAY JULY 1 Morning programme July 1, 2015, was a perfect summer day, and the warmest of the season so far. The Hague’s Peace Palace, set in beautifully maintained gardens, looked its best. Inside, the scene was set for The 3rd Hague Peace Conference. The Peace Palace, which opened in 1913, was one of three venues hosting the conference. At 10am, Steven van Hoogstraten, Director of the Carnegie Foundation and the Peace Palace, spoke a word of welcome. He discussed the Palace, the first two peace conferences and other efforts to prevent war. He went on to deliver the lecture prepared by Ingrid van Engelshoven, Deputy Mayor of The Hague. The Hague is the seat of many international organizations, such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and is often referred to as the Legal capital of the United Nations (UN) system. The next speaker was Ton Koene, a professional photographer and World Press Photo winner who applies his experience of working for Médecins sans Frontières in his work about humanitarian issues relating to war. In perfect sync with his explanations, he shared images of sorrow, injury and frustration captured throughout Africa and Asia. “How realistic is it to strive for a world without war?” he asked. “The first victim of war is morality. In war you either flee or fight for your life.” Koen addressed the disintegration of war-torn societies and the abuse of religion by the power-hungry. His pictures portrayed young men recruited by IS, hanging around at street corners and in teahouses. “Often it’s the frustration of enforced idleness that drives these men to war. The conflict offers them work, a sense of belonging and a way out of the hopelessness of their existence. Showing a portrait of himself posing as a heavily armed fighter, he wondered: “What would I have done if I’d been born in a different place?” The presentation was followed by a spirited discussion, which set a trend that ran through the whole conference: the audience raised more questions than the speakers had time to answer. To one of the more personal questions: “Have you lost hope?” The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University Koene replied: “I hate humanity, but I love people.” 8 During the coffee break, some of the foreign diplomats in attendance explained why they had come. “Because of the combination of education and international law,” said Adia Sakiqi-Vandecasteele, Albania’s Ambassador to the Netherlands. Dr. Kajal Bhat, First Secretary at the Embassy of India, called the insights into global issues enlightening. Improving the Security Council’s decision-making process was the subject chosen by Nico Schrijver, Scientific Director for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. The UN, he said, is far behind in repositioning itself as a general justice organization: “We need new ideas – yours too.” After criticizing the UN’s effectiveness, transparency and global governance in general, he pointed to the role of civil society and the business sector. He also discussed models to reorganize the UN, proposed by Kofi Annan in 2004-’05. Looking ahead, he suggested several possible guardians of public interest. An African participant brought up the support from Western countries for some dictators and China’s role in Africa. Schrijver’s conclusion: “The key word is dialogue.” Afternoon programme After lunch at the Peace Palace the programme shifted to THUAS, hosted by former Director of Lectorates and Research, Ineke van der Meule. There were three different workshops on the agenda, each of which was repeated twice, so that the participants could attend them all. Rajash Rawal, newly appointed as Dean at the Faculty of Management and Organization, gave the students advice on ways of sharpening their essay writing skills. The most common mistake, he said, was that they spend too much time sourcing information and not enough analyzing the subject matter and developing original thoughts. Rawal was struck by the students’ drive, targeted questions and eagerness to learn. “They asked for tips on how to use their own minds and ideas, which is promising for the future since old ideas got us into the messes we are in now.” Lecturers Vladimir Ignjatovic and Maria Vanlaeken-Kester took the workshop on how to deliver an excellent pitch. Ignjatovic identified voice power, body language and eye contact as key aspects of a successful pitch. The third workshop, on how to make peace go viral, related directly to the theme of the conference. Social Media Coordinator David Suswa started by explaining what ‘going viral’ means and how it is achieved. He emphasized the importance of picking the right moment, triggering positive emotions and choosing the most effective communication channel – 82 percent of content going viral comes from Facebook. One of his examples was #notinmyname, which achieved huge exposure. Suswa also suggested various ways of successfully using calls to action. The 3rd Hague Peace Conference Hague Peace The 3rd At the end of the first conference day, a barbecue dinner awaited the students. 9 THURSDAY JULY 2 Morning programme The host for the second day of the conference was Henno Theisens, THUAS’ Professor of Public Governance. He introduced the President of the Executive Board Leonard Geluk, who asked his audience to react to various symbols. “For global justice,” he said, “we need to teach our students to be open and become world citizens.” Robert Heinsch, Associate Professor at Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, was the next person to take the floor. He spoke about the need for revision of the Geneva Conventions, upon which all speakers appeared to agree. He observed that we now have to deal with many different kinds of armed conflict, up to 90 percent of which are not inter-state: “It’s increasingly unclear who is fighting whom.” He used the situation in Ukraine as an example of what he called ‘new wars’ and ‘asymmetric and hybrid conflicts’. In legal terms, groups often referred to as terrorists are heterogeneous, elusive partners, to whom the Geneva Conventions don’t apply. “If a uniform law had been in place in Ukraine, it would have greatly facilitated the procedures.” Heinsch concluded his lecture with a look at the evolution of the battlefield which uses modern technology. We now have drones, increasingly automatic weapons and even ‘killer robots’. The need for a new system of weapons control is increasingly felt. “First of all,” Heinsch concluded, “we have to achieve a broad consensus of necessary changes.” During the coffee break, a conversation developed between three participants. A male European Studies student from Germany and female students from Liberia and Zimbabwe discovered common ground in that their countries all have strong leaders who have been in power a long time. They discussed the effect of power on Angela Merkel, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia’s and Africa’s first female president) and Robert Mugabe. The conversation was about corruption, shifting politics and the difference between inside and outside views, moving on to the way in which age, experience and The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University responsibility affect political and social ideas. 10 For the essays submitted ahead of the conference, the participants had been given a choice from two themes: Modernizing the Humanitarian Rules of War and Improving the Maintenance of Peace by the UN Security Council and Regional Organizations. Thursday’s parallel sessions, held in four different locations, followed the same division. Robert Heinsch pursued the theme he had addressed earlier, modernization of the Ge- neva Conventions. He shared the session with Mirjam de Bruin, Legal Advisor for the Dutch Red Cross. Prevention of war and peacebuilding after violent conflict was the subject chosen by Joris Voorhoeve, Lector at THUAS, Professor at Leiden University and a former Dutch Minister of Defense. Voorhoeve was in fact the initiator of The 3rd Hague Peace Conference. His session took the form of a lecture, with occasional interaction with the students.