Baltic Summer Academy on International Humanitarian Law

International humanitarian law

International humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus that comprises "the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It...

 is organised every summer by Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n and Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

n Red Cross National Societies and International Committee of the Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...

 (ICRC) Regional Delegation for Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

. The Academy is meant for students of law, international relations and political science and military academies from the Baltic states

Baltic states

The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

. The tendency in recent years is that students also from other countries join the event. In addition to the participants from the Baltic states, there were students from Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Poland.

Goal and objectives of the Academy

Goal of the event is to disseminate international humanitarian law among scholars in the Baltic states.

Objectives

• To improve knowledge of International Humanitarian Law among participating university students.
• To encourage co-operation of professors and practitioners of the region with the Red Cross societies in the field of IHL dissemination.
• To turn public opinion to humanitarian problems and to build up visibility of humanitarian organisations on the national and regional level.

Program

1. Lectures, case studies and discussions.
2. Evening programs suggested by organisers and by participating students themselves.

Participants

Priority for students of law, international relations, political sciences and military academies. Also young practitioners are invited.