Summary: Workshop on Strengthening International Public Law

Strengthening International Public Law¹; Training on Humanitarian Law²

The workshop aimed (1) at presenting international laws relating to the environment and the issue of sustainable development (2) at pointing out the valuable role that civil society organisations can play and should play for a sustainable development. The training session objective was to explain international humanitarian law. It helped understanding forms of humanitarian interventions in armed conflict. 

Prof. Laurence Boisson de Chazournes of Institute for WTO Law stated that the international community became effectively concerned about international environment 30 years ago. The 1972 UN Conference on Human Environment which held in Stockholm and was attended by a large number of states, civil society actors as well as the private sector was the starting point in dealing with the issue. In 1974 was created the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP), since then many international conventions have been adopted (e.g. on climate change, desertification). Ms. Boisson De Chazournes said that even though the international community is aware of the consequences of environmental degradation, there is a lack of commitment and willingness to solve the problem. She said that looking back at what has been done since the 1992 Rio Conference where the notion of sustainable development was emphasised, not much efforts have been done by states. Mr. Mbengue noted the imbalance that currently exists between trade and environment.

Dr. Christina Breining of the Geneva University said that WTO has indeed been highly criticized by namely NGOs for too narrowly concentrating on trade issues and on not considering legitimate public interests outside the realm of free trade such as environmental law and human rights. She posed the challenging issue of globalisation and the way it affects the environment. Dr. Breining added that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) aims to promote development, to raise the standard of living and allow for the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development.

Her major concern was to assess the role that civil society organisations can and should play? She said that NGOs could bring in their expertise by advising a party to a dispute before the WTO. A government will include the brief of the NGOs in its own submission thus making it an official document of the dispute settlement process. However, as she pointed out there is no instrument in WTO law that would allow civil society organisations to represent public goods or global commons to becoming a party to the dispute. However, Ms. Breining underlined the important role that civil society organisations can play in negotiations and assessment procedures. 

During his training session on international humanitarian law (IHL), Mr. Bittel first defined international public law (IPL) as a body of international laws —treaties, conventions and customary law—that is binding on all states. He then differentiated IHL from human rights law (HRL). The former referred to the conduct of hostilities that is, how the armed conflict has to be conducted, as such it guarantees some basic rights. Mr. Bittel of the International committee on the Red Cross then characterised IHL as higher norms which are to be enforced by everyone and are as internationally “crystallised”.

In dealing with international humanitarian law, two issues are to be considered:

1. The right to wage war or not: the United Nations Security Council is the competent authority to decide. Three cases exist: a) self-defence is permitted if one state is attacked by another (Article 51 of the UN Charter); b) the Security Council might by itself decides to use armed forces; c) humanitarian interventions in order to stop human rights abuses.
2. How to behave when waging war (armed conflict already exists): in this case, the issue falls under the international humanitarian law, which set rules on the protection of the person in the power of the enemy and on the conduct of hostilities that is, the means and methods of warfare.

Surprising issues
A participant said that even though international law exists, most states are not actually enforcing the law and that torture, for instance, is still a common practise in wartime. He added that NGOs cannot do much to the respect. Mr. Bittel replied that there it is very difficult to determine whether law is observed or not. However, he pointed out that permanent courts are established in order to punish abuses and that compared to 50 years back, there have been positive changes.

Conclusions
Ms. Briening estimated that NGOs with their expert knowledge could contribute in developing tools, in order to identify relevant social, economic and environmental indicators and in analysing whether the GATS has had an impact on these indicators. She stated that this is of particular relevance with regard to the assessment of sustainability. She concluded by saying that the discussions on these issues are still in its infancy, yet there are promising signs.

Mr. Bittel pointed out that thanks to international legal provisions, states have the obligation to follow certain basic rules. However, he underlined out that behind legal texts lied real conflict situations and that as such, a reductive legal view in not sufficient.

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