This article explores how the International Committee of the Red Cross defines its policy with regard to its activities in the delicate and often very difficult transition period following the end of an armed conflict. Addressing the multiple and varied needs of the population after such a conflict raises several questions at the policy level. These are reflected upon and analysed in this contribution.

This article argues – on the basis of an overview of the legal means to obtain redress for violations of international humanitarian law available at the domestic and international level – that while there is little doubt that victims enjoy rights under international humanitarian law, their rights do not appear to be justiciable and are as such difficult to transform into a right to a remedy.

Timely and adequate reparations can play an important role in enabling victims of violations of international humanitarian law to rebuild their lives. This article reviews national and international laws and mechanisms relating to reparations for such violations, revealing that while a right to reparation is generally accepted, in the absence of specific mechanisms – usually found at the international level – individual victims are unable to enforce their rights and remain without redress.

This paper examines the central role played by humanitarian considerations in the work of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC). It discusses the mandate of the Commission, its working methods, its resources and its role amidst other institutions and processes resulting from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991. From this analysis some conclusions are drawn as to how and to what extent the UNCC could serve as a model for future war reparations processes.

In armed conflicts where serious violations of international humanitarian law have occurred on a massive scale, there is often a need to balance the right of victims to retributive justice with the need of the territorial State to deal with past atrocities in such as manner as to not provoke further violence and to advance the process of reconciliation. This article argues that international law does not preclude domestic and international courts according recognition to certain amnesties limited to those considered "least responsible" for the commission of war crimes, when accompanied by other accountability measures and with the objective of facilitating the progression towards a lasting peace.

International Institute of Humanitarian Law in co-operation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, 27th Annual Round Table on Current Problems of International, Humanitarian Law, 4 September 2003, Address by Jakob Kellenberger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Biannual update on national legislation and case law, January – June 2003

Recent acquisitions of the Library & Research Service, ICRC