Ten officers from the Army Application School participated last weekend at the 40 ^ Round Table on International Humanitarian Law at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL) in Sanremo. The initiative, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, offered the young lieutenants of the Army the opportunity to ascertain the relevance of the additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions , signed in The Hague in 1977.
Institutional greetings, including that of the president of the IIHL Professor Fausto Pocar, were followed by eight sessions of analysis of the new conflicts and future perspectives of humanitarian law. The ten officers of the Application School were confronted with hotly relevant topics such as deprivation of individual freedom in armed conflicts, sexual and gender-based violence, protection of medical personnel and humanitarian negotiations.
To determine the success of the round table the international scope of the initiative and the alternation of speakers and moderators with prestigious background professional and equally peculiar experiences "in the field": academics, jurists, diplomats and military leaders. Tel Aviv, Brussels, Geneva, Nottingham, Frankfurt, Turin, Milan and Reggio Calabria are among the key players of the round table. The contributions of the representatives of institutions at the forefront of the study and protection of human rights were highly appreciated; these include the French Ministry of Defense, the International Red Cross, the International Criminal Court, the Colombian Representation at the United Nations and the Farnesina's inter-ministerial Human Rights Commission.
Professor Edoardo Greppi, president of the Interdepartmental University Structure of Strategic Sciences (SUISS) of the University of Turin and vice president of IIHL expressed his satisfaction: "for the results of an initiative that marks a decisive step forward in the training and updating of civil and military professionals daily involved in the resolution of crisis situations and therefore in the application of humanitarian law".
