(Abstract from the Assembly Verbatim report)

Statement by Jakob Kellenberger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Mr KELLENBERGER (President of the International Committee of the Red Cross). – Thank you, Mr President, for your invitation and I compliment Mr Leonid Slutsky, a member of the Assembly, on his report on the activities of my organisation.

This debate is evidence of the importance of co-operation between the Council of Europe and the ICRC. The two organisations have different mandates and different responsibilities, but they have in common the most important of objectives: the protection of human dignity in all circumstances. That is a solid basis for further co-operation.

The protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms lies at the heart of your Organisation. The role of guardian and protector of international humanitarian law is one of the ICRC’s core responsibilities. As you know, this role regulates the protection of persons and the conduct of hostilities once an armed conflict has occurred.

The ICRC carries out its protection and assistance activities worldwide on a non-selective basis. The ICRC’s activities in the area covered by the member states of the Council of Europe account for approximately Swiss FF147 million or 19% of the ICRC’s operational field expenditure. The Russian Federation, the Balkans and the southern Caucasus are among the ten largest ICRC operations in terms of planned expenditure in 2002.

The co-operation between the ICRC and this Assembly takes place at different levels and in different forms. The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography has been designated as a focal point in relations with your Assembly. The ICRC regularly attends the deliberations of the Committee and briefs it on current subjects. The ICRC is also in touch with the Political Affairs Committee, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Monitoring Committee and thinks that contacts could certainly be developed further. The ICRC enjoys good relationships with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, based on our common goal of ensuring that detainees are treated with dignity and respect. I met a commissioner for human rights last week and, again, noted how precious those contacts are. I also thank the Committee of Ministers for the support that it has more than once extended to the ICRC; a recent case in point is when it replied to your Recommendation 1427 on international humanitarian law.

I now wish to address some of the thematic issues in which the ICRC has particular responsibilities in terms of action. I know that Members of the Assembly follow that with interest. Armed conflicts and the associated violations of humanitarian law remain one of the major causes of displacement of civilian populations. Internally displaced persons as a consequence of armed conflict, in particular those facing most acute distress, are a priority population for the ICRC, which assists some five million persons on an impartial basis worldwide. You are no doubt aware of the importance of making a distinction between different groups of displaced persons and seeing to it that none is forgotten. That represents a challenge in terms of co-ordination between humanitarian and other actors.

The main responsibility for addressing the problems resulting from displacement lies with the respective national authorities. Improved protection for and assistance to women in armed conflicts is an ICRC priority. Last October, the ICRC published a thorough study on the ways in which women and girls are affected by armed conflicts. The operational follow-up to the recommendations contained in that publication is under way and specific guidelines to improve the situation of women and girls will be presented next year.

The ICRC was pleased to learn that your Organisation is involved in efforts to set up a European observation project on trafficking in women and children. Specific reference to trafficking in persons in relation to armed conflicts and by parties thereto is essential to any campaign or proposed convention. Issues related to people unaccounted for as a result of armed conflict are a reality for countless families in many contexts and continue to be so long after the hostilities have ended. That remains an especially acute concern in south-east Europe. The ICRC has undertaken a major study on all possible methods that could help to ascertain more effectively the fate of missing persons and to respond more appropriately to the needs of affected families. The ICRC welcomes the fact that the Council of Europe has already announced its participation in that project.

Mr Slutsky has already mentioned this issue. Just two years ago, the ICRC launched an initiative aimed at the adoption of a new protocol to the 1980 Convention on certain conventional weapons, which would address a wide variety of explosive remnants of war, in addition to land mines. Massive amounts of unexploded munitions, for which no one is clearly responsible, often affect post-conflict communities and hamper reconstruction efforts. The ICRC invites the Council of Europe to join it in mobilising the international will to address that humanitarian problem.

I now turn to several geographical contexts in which the ICRC is very active and which your Assembly has addressed in order to defend humanitarian values, often by expressly supporting international humanitarian law and the ICRC. In relation to the humanitarian situation in the Balkans, there are still three major legacies of the wars of the last decade in former Yugoslavia. First, there is the question of missing persons – some 25 000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo – which the ICRC is addressing through its family-oriented approach. The second is the wide presence of mines and other remnants of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and northern Albania, which remain a danger to civilians and a hindrance to normal life. Thirdly, in Serbia and Montenegro, there continue to be more than 200 000 internally displaced people from Kosovo, mostly Serbs and Roma who are unable to return to their homes because of the precarious security conditions for non-Albanians in the province. The ICRC is at present assisting 70 000 of the most vulnerable internally displaced people in Serbia.

The ICRC’s second largest operation after Afghanistan is in the Russian Federation. We have had positive experiences with the federal authorities in the implementation of our programmes for humanitarian law dissemination to the armed forces and in secondary schools. In operational terms the ICRC is at present assisting some 130 000 internally displaced persons in the northern Caucasus. In addition, the ICRC is currently analysing the situation of internally displaced persons in order to identify better those living exclusively in Ingushetia and those who do not benefit from assistance from other organisations. That analysis should serve as the basis on which the ICRC can support the internally displaced more effectively and assist those who wish to return to their place of origin.

The ICRC visits and registers people arrested in relation to the security operation in Chechnya and who are held by the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice, as well as by the Federal Security Bureau. In fact, ICRC delegates have so far visited forty-six detention centres, including fifteen inside Chechnya. However, its delegates have not as yet gained access to all persons and places of detention. That is also due to security constraints on the movements of staff in Chechnya.

In the south Caucasus, the ICRC welcomes the interest and involvement of your Assembly. There are regular and excellent contacts between the missions of your Assembly to that region and ICRC headquarters and field delegations. The ICRC has access to all detainees and places of detention falling within its mandate in the south Caucasus, with the exception of Nagorno-Karabakh. The CPT and the ICRC have worked in close complementarity in Georgia, and the ICRC is looking forward to working in the same way when the CPT conducts visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia. As in the Balkans, the ICRC is heavily involved with the file of persons who went missing during the various conflicts in the south Caucasus. It supports the Georgian and Abkhaz commissions on missing persons, together with Physicians for Human Rights.

I am aware of the interest that your Assembly has manifested in the situation in the Middle East and the ICRC activities in that context. The ICRC has more than fifty expatriates in the field who, together with 120 local staff, address the most urgent humanitarian problems. The ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent faced major difficulties in gaining access to all victims of the violence. I urged Prime Minister Sharon, in a letter on 10 April, to intervene immediately and personally to ensure that all victims of the violence have access to the medical and humanitarian services to which they are entitled under international humanitarian law and to grant the ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society full access to those victims.

The priority last week was to gain access to the Jenin refugee camp. On 15 April, ten days after the beginning of the Israeli incursion, the ICRC was finally able to enter the camp – I think that we were the first to enter – together with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, to evacuate some of the wounded and dead, to establish a medical first aid post and to provide some assistance to the civilian population. The ICRC had to request external expertise to clear mines and explosives, and to move the debris in order to create the conditions to make possible the search for possible victims buried under the rubble of destroyed houses.

On several occasions, the ICRC made public statements in recent weeks recalling the legal framework of the fourth Geneva convention for occupied territories. The ICRC also reminded all those taking part in the violence that wherever armed force is used the choice of means and methods is not unlimited. In particular, acts intended to spread terror among the civilian population are absolutely and unconditionally prohibited.

Let me return to the subject of co-operation between your Assembly and the ICRC. The Parliamentary Assembly has been a consistent supporter of the ICRC and the upholding of international humanitarian law, both in statements made by many of its members and in documents adopted over the years. Recommendation 40/97, on respect for international humanitarian law in Europe, underlines the obligation of the Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention not only to respect, but to ensure respect for, the rules of international humanitarian law. Your support on that issue is particularly important today, for two reasons.

In countless armed conflicts around the world, millions of men, women and children face extreme hardship and violence. The extent to which international humanitarian law is or is not being respected has a direct bearing on their plight. The challenge of securing more respect for those rules is a matter of major concern to the ICRC. What is lacking is not rules and provisions, but respect for existing rules, and the political will to apply them. It makes a real difference if states take seriously their obligation to ensure respect for the Geneva Convention, or if they do not do so.

In the context of the struggle against terrorism, questions have been raised about both the applicability and the adequacy of existing rules of international humanitarian law. In respect of applicability, several bodies of law – including national and international law – are relevant to the struggle against terrorism. International humanitarian law consists of the body of rules that are applicable whenever the fight against terrorism amounts to, or includes, armed conflict, as is the case in Afghanistan or on the West Bank.

As for adequacy, the generations of experts and diplomats who drafted international humanitarian law were fully aware of the need to balance state security and the preservation of human life, health and dignity. That balance has always been at the core of the laws of war. There is no doubt that the norms of international humanitarian law are also adequate tools with which to deal with the post-11 September reality. It would indeed be misleading to say that recent or present-day crimes surpassed the evils that humans have historically inflicted on humans. The Geneva Conventions were devised in response to the ravages of the second world war and the atrocities that accompanied it, the Holocaust in particular. In the light of that, I do not think anyone can seriously suggest that they are outdated or quaint.

The heinous crimes of 11 September delivered a blow to the most fundamental values of human society, particularly those at the heart of international humanitarian and human rights law. Full respect for international humanitarian and human rights law is no obstacle whatever in the struggle against terrorism; and the struggle against terrorism is no justification whatever for the lowering of standards of protection offered by these bodies of law. I thank you for your help in making that well understood.