The discussion will be a taking stock of Helen Durham's last eight years as Director of International Law & Policy at the ICRC, reflecting on law and policy evolutions during her mandate and laying out the issues and challenges that lie ahead. We will also touch up on a personal look at her broader career in international law and her advice for young professionals.

Episode 2: Humanitarian law and policy - a reflection with Helen Durham

Worldwide, millions of people are already facing the harsh reality of climate and environmental crises, which act as a risk magnifier and compound the impacts of other global economic, health and food crises. Launched by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 2021, the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations guides the sectoral approach to the increasing risks of climate change and how to address its own carbon and environmental footprint.

In this post, Dr. Alistair D. B. Cook, Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief for the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, draws from discussions during a recent workshop co-hosted by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the Movement on the state of play in climate action for humanitarian actors operating in Southeast Asia and the role the Charter has played so far in addressing current and future crises.

Climate change, environment and humanitarian action in Southeast Asia

Efforts to address the ethical challenges posed by autonomous weapon systems are growing. In December 2023, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution requesting the Secretary-General to seek states’ views for addressing, among other issues, the ethical challenges posed by these systems, and in April 2024 Austria is hosting the conference ‘Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapon Systems and the Challenge of Regulation’, with the aim of bringing ethical challenges to the fore. 

In this post, Alexander Blanchard, Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), argues that while ethics has been a prominent part of international regulatory debate on autonomous weapon systems for years, the promise and potential of ethics for advancing that debate is still far from being realized. He holds that, for progress to happen, new efforts must be coupled with work to clarify the role of ethics for regulation.

The road less travelled: ethics in the international regulatory debate on autonomous weapon systems

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Humanitarian Law & Policy blog is a unique space for timely analysis and debate on international humanitarian law (IHL) issues and the policies that shape humanitarian action.

The road less travelled: ethics in the international regulatory debate on autonomous weapon systems

ICRC Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog

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