Nowadays, the notion of warfare readily brings topics such as cyber attacks, drones and autonomous weapon systems to mind. The Geneva Conventions however, one of the central sources of international humanitarian law, date back to 1949 and are based upon the ‘kinetic’ war practices of the Second World War.
How can international humanitarian law, the body of law which regulates violent conflict, nowadays be applied to new methods of warfare? What is cyber warfare to begin with and are there examples of cyber attacks in times of conflict?
Professor of Military Law Terry Gill (University of Amsterdam) and Erik de Jong (FOX IT) will discuss this highly relevant topic.
About the speakers
Terry Gill is Professor of Military Law at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Defence Academy and was until February 2014 also Associate Professor of Public International Law at Utrecht University. He is Director of the Research Program on the Law of Armed Conflict and Peace Operations at the Amsterdam Center for International Law and of the Netherlands Research Forum on the Law of Armed Conflict and Peace Operations (LACPO).
Erik de Jong is Lead Expert Cybercrime bij Fox-IT, a company that prevents, solves and mitigates the most serious cyber threats with innovative solutions for government, defense, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, banking, and commercial enterprise clients worldwide.
Moderator is Mirjam de Bruin, Legal advisor International Humanitarian Law Department at the Dutch Red Cross.
The Red Cross & International Humanitarian Law
Even wars have laws. The international humanitarian law is the body of law that regulates and defines rules in times of violent conflict. The goal of the international humanitarian law is to protect persons who are not or no longer participating in combat and to regulate the means and methods of warfare. The respect for human dignity even during the most inhuman of times and circumstances lies at the core of the international humanitarian law as well as the Red Cross. Read more (in Dutch).