Page 349 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

Finally, I would like to include as peace-building the activities of the
international community in terms of disarmament. Indeed, in this post-Cold
War period, a discrepancy has appeared between considerably reduced needs
for military equipment and the existing productive capacity of the industry.
Overproduction feeds the illicit traffic of arms, in particular of light
conventional weapons, and poses a serious threat to international security. Any
activity aimed at curbing or banning altogether the production and sales
of such weapons, may be deemed ‘Peace-building’. The efforts of the
international community to ban antipersonnel landmines which culminated
last year in the signature of the Treaty of Ottawa by more than 120
countries, were also definitely of a peace-building nature.

And finally,

Conflict management

Crisis management entails modulating one's policy and operational
responses during a conflict, so as to minimize the damaging effect of the
conflict and maximize the prospects for future solutions.

One of the most important element of conflict management is to make
sure that the principles of humanitarian law which are embodied in The Hague
and Geneva Conventions are duly observed in conflict situation. These codes
of conduct on the treatment of military personnel and civilian populations, as
well as on the use on certain types of weapons need to be given wider publicity
among elected officials and military leaders around the world. Efforts to
promote educational campaigns on these matters should be reinforced. The
upcoming 100th anniversary of The Hague convention and the 50th
anniversary of the Geneva Convention will undoubtedly serve to give greater
visibility to international humanitarian law.

On 17 July 1998 in Rome, 160 nations decided to establish a permanent
international criminal court to try individuals for the most serious offences of
global concern, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The
necessity for creating such a court now came front the realization that the ad-
hoc tribunals set up to try suspected criminals following specific conflicts were
too limited in their jurisdiction and not flexible enough to address larger, more
complex circumstances surrounding these conflicts. But most important of all,
the world did not have a permanent body to deter new violations from
occurring in the first place. In the words of the UN Secretary-General Kofi

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