With the ceremony of delivery of the qualification certificates, the fifty-third course for the course ended yesterday morning Qualified Counselor for the application of International Humanitarian Law in armed conflicts, held from 2 to 13 last October, at the CTR (Technical Supply Center) of the Fiumicino Air Force.
About thirty graduate students, including several members of the Army, the Navy, the Aeronautica itself, the Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza, as well as officials and senior officials of the State Police, the Municipal Police of Rome and Fiumicino, journalists and jurists.
The activity in question was carried out by the Italian Red Cross which, as a national expression, in our country, of the International Red Cross (which, through the ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross - has, among its tasks, provided for by international law and, in particular, precisely that of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977, the dissemination, both at the Armed Forces and in favor of the civilian population, of the rules relating to international humanitarian law, otherwise known as the right of armed conflicts) has always been very active in this regard: through a special office (coordinated by National Commission for the Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law and the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross), it promotes courses, information days, round tables, conferences and seminars "ad hoc", both within the association itself (with particular regard to access courses for new volunteers), and external to it (including Armed Forces, bodies public and private, Universities, schools, NGOs), with important and prestigious collaborations, for example with the Institute of International Law of San Remo or other national societies.
Among the speakers of the course, important experts in the field, including the lawyer Gerardo Di Ruocco, Professor Alice Riccardi (of the University of Roma Tre), the notary Giulia Clarizio, Dr. Francesca Tabacchi, the lawyer Ugo Milana, l 'lawyer Marco Valerio Verni and, certainly not least in importance, the same president of the National Commission of International Humanitarian Law of the Italian Red Cross, Dr. Pietro Ridolfi.
Many topics covered: from those concerning the important basic issues (the origin and evolution of the DIU, its principles, the scope of application, the different types of armed conflicts, the repression of war crimes, the system of the United Nations), to the more complex ones, which constitute the challenges, present and of the immediate future, which the international community will have to face ever more (the remotely piloted aircraft - APR-alias drones, the cyber-war, the "targeted killings" and the "war on terrorism" the protection of Cultural Heritage, the "Non State Actors").
The road is still uphill (as he also pointed out President Ridolfi in his final lecture) and we must not delude ourselves that everything has been resolved, indeed: but having thrown another seed in the spread of this important branch of international law has certainly approached the international community, and the Red Cross in particular, to its goal, namely that (paraphrasing St. Augustine) of "to teach human beings also by doing war".
