[Reader-list] Int'l Law in Central Asia

[Soenke Zehle]

Dear all,

I just saw this and wonder whether there are folks in Central Asian
universities whose pubs we should research and circulate and support beyond
the current crisis, since I noticed that even on listservs in other
countries, many articles are from US alternative media, and awareness of
criticism of the new Great Game Resource Competition from within Central
Asia is pretty low (on my end, anyway).

I don't have time at this moment but will return to the topic in a little
while - meanwhile, anyone?

I do recognize that NGOs & so-called "civil society actors" are all too
often mere extensions of the state, providing researcg as well as legitimacy
(remember the early role of AI and others in the Kosovo Crisis). And there's
no doubt that there's a transnationalization of local and regional public
spheres going on (i.e. much of the "civil society" activity is actually done
by subsidiaries of major int'l NGOs).

But there's a lot of good stuff out there, even if you don't buy the whole
international civil society/humanitarianism stuff.

S/Z

http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/4dc394db5b54f3fa4125673900241f2f/6d4068913f5
368c0c1256a45002decfd?OpenDocument

31 March 2001

International Review of the Red Cross No. 841, 155-165

Promoting the teaching of international humanitarian law in universities:
the ICRC's experience in Central Asia
by Luisa Vierucci


Luisa Vierucci was an ICRC delegate formerly in charge of promoting the
teaching of international humanitarian law at the universities of Central
Asia. She has a Master's degree in Studies in Legal Research from the
University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and a Doctorate in International Law
from the European University Institute of Florence (Italy).

The ICRC is most visible in times of armed conflict, when it intervenes to
protect and assist the victims in accordance with its mandate. Less well
known are the activities which the ICRC carries out in time of peace (also
referred to as preventive action). They include spreading knowledge of
international humanitarian law among the civilian and military sectors of
society, providing legal advice to state authorities on that branch of law
and helping National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to develop their
capacity. [1]

Since the early 1990s the ICRC has been promoting the teaching of
international humanitarian law in the universities of countries which,
though not necessarily at war, need to train lawyers in that field. At
present such programmes, under the direction of a dozen ICRC delegates and
several local assistants, are being carried out in some 25 countries. The
aim of the programme is both to improve knowledge of international
humanitarian law among future decision- makers and to make the ICRC and its
activities better known. One of the regions where the ICRC university
programme has been strongly developed is the former Soviet Union, where the
newly independent States, especially those of Central Asia, had little or no
tradition in international law, let alone in international humanitarian law.
[2]

After the break-up of the USSR in 1991 and their accession to independence,
the four countries examined here ‹ Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan ‹ had to train their own diplomats and increase their public
officials' knowledge of international law. Under the circumstances, the ICRC
offered to start developing the teaching of international humanitarian law
at the universities of Central Asia [3]. The programme was first directed by
the ICRC in Moscow and has been continued since 1996 by the ICRC's regional
delegation in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.