Strengthening Compliance with International Humanitarian Law

Strengthening Compliance with International Humanitarian Law

The government of Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are jointly cooperating to strengthen compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL). The joint initiative focuses on building a flexible and voluntary framework in which States can enter into a dialogue on issues related to compliance with IHL, their practical experiences in IHL implementation, the sharing of best practices, the identification of their possible capacity building needs, and the identification of challenges in IHL implementation. To this end, a Meeting of States, as the central pillar of a future IHL compliance system, could be established and then serve to consider national compliance reports in a non-contextual manner and hold thematic discussions on current IHL issues.