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Observations on the 150th anniversary of the ICRC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2013

Abstract

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Type
Perspectives on the ICRC
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2013 

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References

1 Editor's note: The ICRC's position in this regard is laid out in Dörmann, Knut, ‘The legal situation of “unlawful/unprivileged combatants”’, in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 85, No. 849, March 2003, pp. 4574CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 During this same period, US officials expressed similar concerns about the lack of legal rigor in the ICRC's Customary International Humanitarian Law Study. On 11 November 2006, the General Counsel of the Department of Defense and I sent a lengthy letter to the ICRC criticizing the methodology of the study and the lack of evidentiary support for its conclusions that certain rules had achieved customary international law status. See ‘Joint letter from John Bellinger and William Haynes to Jakob Kellenberger on Customary International Law Study’, in International Legal Materials, Vol. 46, May 2007, p. 514. Also see the exchange in the International Review of the Red Cross between, on one side, myself and William Haynes (‘A US government response to the International Committee of the Red Cross study Customary International Humanitarian Law’), and, on the other, Henckaerts, Jean-Marieof the ICRC (‘Customary International Humanitarian Law: a response to US comments’), in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 89, No. 866, June 2007CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See US Department of State Archive, Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War, John B. Bellinger III, Legal Adviser Lecture at the University of Oxford, 10 December 2007Google Scholar, available at: http://2001-2009.state.gov/s/l/rls/96687.htm (last visited May 2013).

4 See Bellinger, John B. III and Padmanabhan, Vijay M., ‘Detention operations in contemporary conflicts: four challenges for the Geneva Conventions and other existing law’, in American Journal of International Law, Vol. 105, No. 2, April 2011, p. 201CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 243.

6 See John B. Bellinger III, ‘Red Cross Conference acknowledges “gaps” in international humanitarian law governing detention’, Lawfare blog, 3 December 2011, available at: www.lawfareblog.com/2011/12/red-cross-conference-acknowledges-gaps-in-international-humanitarian-law-governing-detention/ (last visited May 2013).

7 See ICRC, ‘Strengthening legal protection for victims of armed conflicts’, Draft resolution and Report, 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 28 November–1 December 2011, available at: www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/red-cross-crescent-movement/31st-international-conference/31-int-conference-strengthening-legal-protection-11-5-1-1-en.pdf.