Diplomats To Draft Humanitarian Laws

An international group of diplomats will descend on Harvard to hash out a modern interpretation of the Geneva Convention in a January conference called by the Swiss government.

The Swiss are working with the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) to organize the high-profile meeting.

It will address “how international humanitarian law should apply to contemporary conflict, such as the war on terror,” said HPCR Project Manager Mary S. Richardson, who is responsible for coordinating the event on this side of the Atlantic.

The Geneva Convention is the treaty that dictates the rights of individuals in times of war and laws governing warfare.

“The war on terror is a new situation…. It’s less a question of holes in the convention, but of disagreement of how the convention’s applied to this situation,” Richardson said. “Opinions on that are all over the map right now.”

The Swiss government—one of the founding partners of HPCR—thought Harvard’s academic setting would be ideal for the meeting.

“The location is here for convenience as much as anything, a different, less legislative tone for the meeting,” Richardson said.

Richardson said the Swiss government had asked several countries to send emissaries to the conference, but would not elaborate on the meeting’s membership. A spokesperson for the Swiss Embassy declined to comment.

“We are requesting that countries send fairly high-level participants,” Richardson said. “Hopefully they’ll be influential decision-makers in their respective countries.”

Although the agenda for the meeting is not yet set, Richardson said she expects discussion to range from how to apply the stipulations of the Geneva Convention to distinguishing between civilians and military personnel to the definition of an appropriate objective of war—many of which are issues raised recently by President Bush’s ongoing war against terror.

Richardson emphasized that the meeting would deal with interpretation—not with changing actual wording of the Geneva Convention rules.

“We certainly would not be involved in amending the Convention,” said Richardson.

Instead, the objective is to reach a consensus on the interpretation of the rules of the Convention.

While the conference will take place at Harvard, it was originally proposed by the Swiss government. HPCR, based at the Harvard School of Public Health, is a joint project of the Swiss government, the United Nations and Harvard. HPCR is dedicated to researching humanitarian law and protecting civilians during conflicts.

“We are the only program that I know of that was founded as a cooperative venture with the Swiss government,” said Richardson. “It’s useful to have a Harvard connection for the Swiss.”

While Richardson said students won’t have an opportunity to participate in the invitation-only meeting, she said, “if we come up with results that we’re able to share publicly, certainly we’ll be delighted to share with the Harvard community.”

Richardson said the conference could generate a lasting impact on international policy.

“It’s fascinating, it’s cutting-edge legal issues that have great impact on our world right now. It’s a really important time,” Richardson said. “Someone asked me, ‘Is humanitarian law relevant anymore?’ It’s increasingly relevant. There’s real power in it to influence for the good.”