UKM & ICRC To Host 7th Teaching Session On IHL

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- The Regional Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Law Faculty will host the 7th Southeast and East Asian Teaching Session on International Humanitarian Law (SEATS-IHL) here, next week. SEATS-IHL aims to improve and strengthen the knowledge of law applicable to armed conflicts and other violent situations, while promoting its understanding among the academic community, government officials and the civil society of the region, UKM said in a statement here Friday. The event, which will run from July 15 to 20, will stage presentations on IHL and humanitarian actions by scholars, military experts and ICRC along with case studies, designed to apply in the practice of rules and principles linking current legal challenges in humanitarian problems. The topics to be covered at this year’s session include the qualification of armed conflicts and other situations of violence, the protection of persons deprived of their liberty, assistance and humanitarian action, the conduct of hostilities, international humanitarian law, the fight against terrorism, as well as the enforcement of IHL. The course will bring together over 30 participants from countries across Southeast and East Asia including China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, and the Philippines. The speakers include Prof. Harry Roque, Director for Institute of International Legal Studies (IILS) and University of the Philippines Law Centre, who is the first and the only Asian to be allowed to practice before the International Criminal Court since 2005. UKM, one of the four Malaysian research universities is actively engaged in humanitarian missions since its incorporation in 1970. The university and ICRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2010 which saw both collaborating to promote the understanding of international humanitarian law. ICRC is an impartial, neutral and independent organisation set up to provide assistance and protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other violence situations while preventing human suffering via the promotion and strengthening of humanitarian law and principles. SEATS-IHL has been held in Kuala Lumpur annually since 2005 (with the exception of 2006) while UKM has hosted the event since 2010. -- BERNAMA