International Humanitarian Law includes states commitments for securing war victims, supporting prisoners of war, serving the war victims and states obligations in reducing civilian casualties. The international humanitarian law has been defined & interpreted in the four conventions of Geneva 1949. These conventions have been approved by the United Nations under universal general rights. Hence, all states parties of the United Nations are obliged to include the provisions of these conventions in their national laws and accordingly form some structures and mechanisms for applying the international humanitarian law in their political and social lives. These conventions are very crucial for states still in conflicts and war. Afghanistan is a country where the international military forces are widely operating. The military forces of nearly 40 countries are here to fight against the international terrorism. During the last 12 years, we were witnessed of huge civilian causalities in which women and children were the main victims. With regret that civilian causalities became one of the main challenges during military operations in Afghanistan . In order to promote the culture of responsibility among the national and international military forces, it’s very crucial and important to generalize the international humanitarian law.
Developing and promoting the international humanitarian law was one of the main programs of the Civil Society & Human Rights Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) in its 4 th phase and has therefore conducted some constructive dialogues among the civil society institutions. Based on these dialogues, civil society institutions requested CSHRN to initiate capacity building programs regarding the humanitarian law for its member organizations. According to this proposal, CSHRN’s secretariat has conducted some joint meeting with its member organizations during which a working group of Afghan experts for preparing the first draft of the educational manual regarding the international humanitarian law was formed. The working group has launched its program in eight months with the assistant and cooperation of civil society institutions, governmental agencies, academic institutions, and human rights activists in the capital Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan . The working group with the support of the experts from the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) presented the first draft of the educational manual of International Humanitarian Law. The educational manual was sent to CSHRN’s member organizations by the working group and acquired their approval. Based on this educational manual, some educational programs of teacher training, human rights educational school and training workshops will be conducted for civil society organizations in all over the country. Governmental agencies will be also requested to join these programs. On the other hand, efforts will be made in order to conduct these programs for the Afghan military forces on time.
The Afghan Red Crescent Committee has shown its interest regarding this program of CSHRN and announced its cooperation in implementing the human rights educational manual regarding the international humanitarian law. According to this working partnership among the Civil Society & Human Right Network of Afghanistan (CSHRN) and the Red Crescent Committee, educational programs of humanitarian law will be launched for the organizations engaged in the implementation of the international humanitarian law via the educational manual. These educational programs are notably important for ensuring security by the Afghan military forces in the process of security transition.
