Respecting and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law by everyone, everywhere

There has been an alarming increase in the violation of human rights in practically every corner of the globe. We must take action to defend human rights. In the words of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Morocco, Mr. Abdelwahad Radi, "in today's world, there has been a loss of moral values and references for many people, and sometimes for whole societies. We are convinced that terrorism is related to the loss of values such as justice, equality and solidarity, which are no longer respected not only within certain countries, but also internationally. This is extremely unsettling for many people. And it means that some individuals can be recruited by just about anybody". (See the interview).

In 1999 the IPU and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) jointly published a Handbook for parliamentarians entitled Respect for International Humanitarian Law, which has been translated into several languages. Five years later, the Geneva Conventions are often openly ignored. Morally speaking, the suffering inflicted on people in the context of a conflict cannot be tolerated.

As US Senator John McCain wrote in the Wall Street Journal, the Geneva Conventions "prohibit torture and humiliation of detainees, whether or not they are deemed POWs. These are standards that are never obsolete – they cut to the heart of how moral people must treat other human beings".

Legislators have the power to make that understood to those who forget that it is in the interest of all to respect and insure respect for international humanitarian law, so that citizens, hostages and prisoners of war in all the regions of the world, can be protected against arbitrariness. The Speaker of the Moroccan House of Representatives states that "democracy is an indivisible whole which must be respected at both the national and international levels. "To restore confidence among those who have fallen into despair, parliamentarians can join their voices with those of their citizens to reaffirm, as Mr. Radi says, that "human rights are not negotiable, and cannot be bartered off. They are to be upheld, and that is all".

L.B.