Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2010
In December 1995 the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent endorsed the recommendations drawn up by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts for the Protection for War Victims which had met, at the invitation of the Swiss government, on 23–27 January 1995 in Geneva. Recommendation II of this Group proposed that:
“the ICRC be invited to prepare, with the assistance of experts in IHL [international humanitarian law] representing various geographical regions and different legal systems, and in consultation with experts from governments and international organisations, a report on customary rules of IHL applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts, and to circulate the report to States and competent international bodies.”
1 Meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts for the Protection for War Victims (Geneva, 23–27 January 1995), Recommendation II, IRRC, No. 310, January–February 1996, p. 84, and International humanitarian law: From law to action. Report on the follow-up to the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims, Resolution 1 of the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva, 1995), Ibid., p. 58.
2 Ibid.
3 The members of the Steering Committee are Georges Abi-Saab, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva; Salah El-Din Amer, Faculty of Law, Cairo University; Ove Bring, Faculty of Law, University of Stockholm; Éric David, Centre de droit international, Université Libre de Bruxelles; John Dugard, Faculty of Law, University of Leiden; Florentino Feliciano, Appelate Body, World Trade Organization, Geneva; Horst Rscher, Institute for International Peacekeeping Law and Humanitarian Law, Ruhr-University, Bochum; Francoise Hampson, Department of Law, University of Essex, Colchester (U.K.); Theodor Meron, School of Law, New York University; Djamchid Momtaz, Faculty of Law, Tehran University; Milan Sahovic, Center for Human Rights, Belgrade; Raul Emilio Vinuesa, Faculty of Law, University of Buenos Aires.
4 North Sea Continental Shelf Cases (Fed. Rep. Germany v. Denmark, Fed. Rep. Germany v. Netherlands), I.C.J. Reports 1969, p. 3.