Page 365 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

assistance has been used as a fig leaf, hiding a lack of political will to address the
root causes of conflict.”

Still, the vital importance of humanitarian aid cannot be underestimated.
The very essence of the United Nations is that it is the voice of the weak, the
poor and the insecure. It represents the fundamental faith in all human rights
and in the dignity and worth of all human persons. As the Charter puts it so
well: "the achievement of better standards of life in larger freedom.” Who
among us could question the essential virtue in the mitigation or the preven-
tion of events which have devastating social and humanitarian consequences
on a civilian population?! It is for precisely all of these reasons that the empha-
sis on humanitarian aid must not be lessened, but equally as important, that it
be coupled with adequate monitoring mechanisms to ensure that it is applied
in the most effectual of all possible manners.

Law is yet another powerful instrument in the promotion of peace and
towards the non-violent resolution of conflict. The extreme importance of
international humanitarian law towards the achievement of a more humane
global order cannot be underestimated.

This year is the year of international humanitarian law. It also marks the
end of the UN Decade of International Law and coincides not only with the
l00th anniversary of the first peace conference which took place in The Hague
in 1899 (which resulted in the formation of The Hague Law or the Law of
War) but also with the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions (Geneva
Law) in 1949. International humanitarian law composed of Hague and Geneva
laws regulates the conduct of hostilities and seeks to protect the victims of
armed conflicts and civilian populations.

The Conventions are the most widely ratified multilateral treaties and
many of their provisions are considered today to be customary law, binding
even on non-member States. Such is the case of common article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions regarding the protection of the victims of non-
international armed conflicts, as ruled by the International Court of Justice.

Other current areas of emphasis in international humanitarian law include
the increasingly difficult protection of humanitarian personnel in situations
where they themselves are targeted. In this context I am extremely pleased that
the Convention on the Safety of United Nations Personnel of 1994 entered
into force very recently, on 15 January 1999. Attacks of this nature undermine

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