Struck by the by the massive and blatant violations of humanitarian law during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia since 1991 the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights started in 1996 its project Contemporary Humanitarian Law. The purpose was to induce wider knowledge and understanding in this field, to increase the awareness of law and obligations among military officers, politicians, as well as in the wider population. Namely, had information about the Geneva Conventions been were more widespread, it is highly probable that combatants and others who obeyed orders to commit grave breaches of humanitarian law would have offered more resistance. In the present in FR Yugoslavia, as well as in all the parts of the former Yugoslavia, international humanitarian law of armed conflicts is not known well enough.As a part of the project an International Conference was held in Belgrade “Law and Armed Conflict – Theory and Practice”, 15 – 17 November 1996. The speakers were Dr Milan Šahovic (Humanitarian Law Today); Dr Rosemary Abi-Saab and Dr Stojan Novakovic, who spoke on rules of armed conflict and practice (conduct of hostilities, treatment of persons in the power of the enemy) in internal and international armed conflicts, respectively; Dr Konstantin Obradovic, who introduced the subject of control of implementation and the operation of controlling mechanisms; Dr Milivoj Despot and Dr Yoram Dinstein on strengthening the authority of international humanitarian law. The final part of the Conference was devoted to international responsibility for violations of humanitarian law: Dr Gabriela Venturini dealt with state responsibility and Dr Vladan Vasilijevic with individual responsibility.
One of the results of this project was the book “Humanitarno pravo – Savremena teorija i praksa” (Humanitarian Law – Contemporary Theory and Practice), published in 1997. It contains contributions by Prof. Konstantin Obradovic and 9 other authors. The introductory part of is intended to be a course in humanitarian law; the second part consists of revised original papers submitted at the international conference; the third part is devoted to the revised summary of the debate at the conference. After publishing the book the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has organised a series of seminars on humanitarian law aimed at familiarising the broader public with humanitarian law.
By holding a series of weekend seminars under the title “Humanitarian Law – Contemporary Theory and Practice” the Centre intended to inform the general public about humanitarian law and to introduce it to its publication of the same title (Konstantin Obradović, ed.) which was the result of a research project of the Centre. The seminars also provided an opportunity for testing the pedagogical value of the book. Three seminars were held in Belgrade with the title Humanitarian Law – Contemporary Theory and Practice on 10 – 11 May 1997; 17 – 18 May 1997 and 24 – 25 May 1997.
