In collaboration with the International Society of the Islamic Red Crescent, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society held a workshop concerning the fundamentals of International Humanitarian Law and current challenges. The workshop was attended by a number of cadres and employees of the Iraqi Red Crescent as well as a number of specialized professors.
The workshop focused on introducing the Geneva Conventions’ provisions for a number of challenges, which were summarized by eleven challenges, such as urban warfare, the war against terrorism, as well as the significance of implementing international humanitarian law at the level of all countries. The instructor, Dr. Fawzi Osediq, a specialist in the area of International Humanitarian Law at the Islamic Red Crescent Society, stressed the significance of the cadres and volunteers of the Iraqi Red Crescent being fully conversant in all the specifics of the law and the governing international agreements. To work in the human rights sector, “Specifically stating that “the Iraqi Red Crescent Society sets an annual program in this area to improve the capacities of its members in order to promote and spread the concepts of international humanitarian law.”

“The need for full knowledge of the Geneva Conventions, and their appendix related to armed and non-armed conflicts, and how to protect individuals during conflicts, and to identify a group of realistic applied cases, and ways to address them through the intervention of internal and external laws,” Dr. Haider Al-Amara, President of Al-Bayan University and one of the workshop participants, urged.

People who are not directly involved in hostilities, are not actively engaged in them, or have stopped participating in them are protected by International Humanitarian Law. It also places limitations on the tools and techniques of war. The law of war or the law of armed conflict is another name for International Humanitarian Law.

Diwaniyah branch of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society’s Bassam Mohammed confirmed “Since the Iraqi Red Crescent Society works under International Law, we need to develop our abilities in enacting the work within the contexts of International Humanitarian Law and to promote this culture of legal knowledge generally in society. International Humanitarian Law is constantly evolving and interacting with the contemporary events that society is going through.