Comite international de la Croix-Rouge L'implication des enfants dans les conflits armes

What is worse, watching a guilty person walk free or being denied access to a person who may die if left without your assistance? Is it more important to help bring about the wrongdoer's arrest or to help his victim? If a choice has to be made, it is never an easy one. But it is a dilemma that delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sometimes find themselves facing, and it is one that can keep you awake nights.1

Concern has been expressed recently that the rules of international humanitarian law pertaining to civil defence have been somewhat neglected since 1977 and that, 20 years on, the time has come to assess whether these rules are sufficiently realistic and have retained their validity. The purpose of civil defence rules is clear, i.e. “to mitigate the losses, damage and suffering inflicted on the civilian population by the dramatic developments of the means and methods of warfare”. But while the primary purpose of civil defence rules may be formulated quite simply, the means of achieving it are naturally far more complex, indeed increasingly so given the effects of the ever more destructive methods of warfare as well as the changing nature of conflicts, which is resulting in a larger proportion of civilians being killed. It has also been recognized that the rules governing civil defence would remain a dead letter if they were not made known to those for whom they are intended. The current lack of awareness has therefore made efforts to spread knowledge of these rules a matter of necessity.

RésuméL'auteur analyse l'adoption, en juin 2000, d'une clause dans le Règlement de procédure et de preuve de la Cour pénale internationale, qui confère au CICR le droit de ne pas divulguer des informations confidentielles (y compris par le témoignage de délégués) sans le consentement de l'institution. Cette nouvelle norme vient renforcer la décision prise en 1999 par le Tribunal pénal international pour l'ex-Yougoslavie (voir RICR, no 838, juin 2000, pp. 403–425).

The International Committee of the Red Cross is deeply concerned about the increasing number of children recruited or volunteering to take part in hostilities throughout the world. Such children are exposed to the worst dangers and the most horrible suffering, both psychological and physical. What is more, they are easily manipulated and encouraged to commit grievous acts which they are often unable to comprehend.