1 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Annual Report 2021, Vol. 1, Geneva, June 2022, available at: https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DOC/icrc-annual-report-2021-1.pdf (all internet references were accessed in January 2024); World Economic Forum, “The 20 Humanitarian Crises the World Cannot Ignore in 2023 — and What to Do about Them”, 14 December 2022, available at: www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/12/the-20-humanitarian-crises-the-world-cannot-ignore-in-2023-and-what-to-do-about-them/. See also “Interview with Peter Maurer”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 104, No. 920–921, 2022, available at: https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/reviews-pdf/2022-11/interview-peter-maurer-president-of-the-icrc-920.pdf.

2 Kitching, Rachael and Quintin, Anne, “The Well-Trodden Path of National International Humanitarian Law Committees”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 104, No. 920–921, 2022CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 ICRC, Implementing International Humanitarian Law: From Law to Action, Geneva, September 2019, pp. 3–4.

4 ICRC, Institutional Strategy 2019–2024, Geneva, February 2022, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/icrc-strategy-2019-2022-pdf-en.html.

5 In this article, the expression “ill-treatment” is used in the same manner in which the ICRC uses it to include acts of torture, cruel or inhuman treatment, and humiliating and degrading treatment. See ICRC, Policy on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment Inflicted on Persons Deprived of Their Liberty, 9 June 2011, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/icrc-policy-document-on-torture-and-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading-treatment-inflicted-on-persons-deprived-of-their-liberty-pdf-en.html.

6 Also known as the medicolegal investigations system or medicolegal death investigations system, although these refer only to deaths that require medicolegal investigation.

7 The term “investigations” is used to denote all actions which have the purpose of establishing the facts surrounding an incident or event.

8 Roux, Claude et al., “The Sydney Declaration – Revisiting the Essence of Forensic Science through Its Fundamental Principles”, Forensic Science International, Vol. 332, 2022CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111182.

9 “Forensics”, Oxford English Dictionary, available at: www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=forensics.

10 UN Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights and Forensic Science, UN Doc. E/CN.4/RES/1992/24 Ref. 48, 28 February 1992; Report of the Secretary-General on Human Rights and Forensic Science Submitted Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1992/24, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1993/20, 5 February 1993; Moon, Claire, “Human Rights, Human Remains: Forensic Humanitarianism and the Human Rights of the Dead”, International Social Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 215–216, 2014CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/issj.12071; Report of the Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, UN Doc. A/HRC/36/50, 21 August 2017.

11 ICRC, Medico-Legal Systems and Forensic Services: An Assessment Guide, Geneva, 15 December 2022 (internal document).

12 For example, during natural disasters, the search and recovery of deceased individuals and the collection and provision of information to affected families.

13 Warner, Margaret and Braun, Paula A., “Public Health Impact: How Medicolegal Death Investigation Data Help the Living”, Academic Forensic Pathology, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/192536211700700405.

14 For development actors, Objective No. 16 of the agreed Sustainable Development Goals also needs to consider the medicolegal system in a systemic manner in order to reach the objective of “sustainable cities, sustainable systems” through “peace, justice and strong institutions”. See United Nations (UN), The Future Is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development: Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, Geneva, 2019, p. 19, available at: https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/24797GSDR_report_2019.pdf.

15 For the purposes of this article, the expressions “people affected” and “affected populations” refer to the following target populations that are entitled to protection by international law: people that suffer involuntary separation and need to be reunited with their families, people that go missing and their families, people that die and their families, and people that are exposed to ill-treatment, sexual violence and other forms of violence, in the context of armed conflict, other situations of violence, disasters, detention, and forced displacement and migration.

16 For more detailed information on the international legal framework for the protection of affected populations, see ICRC, “Missing Persons and Their Families”, legal factsheet, Geneva, 31 December 2015, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/missing-persons-and-their-families-factsheet; ICRC, “Humanity after Life: Respecting and Protecting the Dead”, legal factsheet, Geneva, 3 April 2020, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/humanity-after-life-respect-and-protection-dead; ICRC, above note 5; ICRC, “Prevention and Criminal Repression of Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence during Armed Conflicts”, legal factsheet, Geneva, 11 March 2015, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/prevention-and-criminal-repression-rape-and-other-forms-sexual-violence-during-armed; Gieseken, Helen Obregon, “The Protection of Migrants under International Humanitarian Law”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 99, No. 904, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 As will be explained in this section, the recommendations related to the search for missing persons presented at the Conference are per se the functions of the medicolegal system, and therefore represent the role of the system in the issue of missing persons.

18 ICRC, The Missing and their Families: Documents of Reference, February 2004, p. 3, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/the-missing-and-their-families-documents-of-reference-pdf-en.html.

19 Ibid., p. 13.

20 Ibid., p. 15.

21 The search process refers to all the actions required to reconstruct in retrospective the journey of an individual from the moment he or she loses contact until he or she is found, alive or dead. It includes procedures related to the collection of information, contextual analysis and investigations and identification, amongst others. See Puerto, Mercedes Salado et al., “The Search Process: Integrating the Investigation and Identification of Missing and Unidentified Persons”, Forensic Science International: Synergy, Vol. 3, 2021Google Scholar.

22 Management of the dead is a process encompassing different stages that begin with the information or report of death and end with the return of the body to the bereaved and final disposition. The process includes all actions related to search, recovery, documentation, identification, and temporary storage or burial. See e.g. Cordner, Stephen and Ellingham, Sara T. D., “Two Halves Make a Whole: Both First Responders and Experts Are Needed for the Management and Identification of the Dead in Large Disasters”, Forensic Science International, Vol. 279, 2017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

23 ICRC, above note 18, p. 15. While this may seem to be the norm, the lack of regulation, procedures and specialized human resources is among the main challenges, as will be explained in the following sections of the article.

24 Information management, which includes the collection of information, is embedded in the search for missing persons and in processes for management of the dead, and hence needs to be considered in a systemic manner. See M. Salado Puerto et al., above note 21, p 17.

25 ICRC, above note 18, p. 17.

26 ICRC, “Missing Persons and Their Families”, above note 16.

27 In Colombia, families of missing persons can register their cases at entities other than law enforcement (e.g., the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences), as families of missing persons from non-State armed groups will not register their cases with the police for fear of retaliation or of being subject to investigation. See National Commission for the Search for Missing Persons, Plan Nacional de Búsqueda, Bogotá, 2012, available at: www.comisiondebusqueda.gov.co/images/abook_file/BPLANNACIONAL.pdf.

28 Crettol, Monique, Milner, Lina, Rosa, Anne-Marie La and Stockwell, Jill, “Establishing Mechanisms to Clarify the Fate and Whereabouts of Missing Persons: A Proposed Humanitarian Approach”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 99, No. 2, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 The Commission on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) is the only example of a completely independent mechanism that does not rely on the State authorities of the medicolegal system, because it has created a complete system within itself. Nevertheless, it does require a State forensic doctor to sign the death certificate, which is necessary for all the subsequent legal and administrative procedures. Paradoxically, one could even note that the CMP's high rate of success is due precisely to the fact that it has built an entire “medicolegal system” within the mechanism. This example demonstrates that a well-structured system and particularly strong forensic capacities are needed for the overall clarification of the fate and whereabouts of missing persons and the provision of answers to families. See Gülbanu K. Zorba, Theodora Eleftheriou, İstenç Engin, Sophia Hartsioti and Christiana Zenonos, “Forensic Identification of Human Remains in Cyprus: The Humanitarian Work of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP)”, in Roberto Parra, Sara C. Zapico and Douglas H. Ubelaker (eds), Forensic Science and Humanitarian Action: Interacting with the Dead and the Living, Vol. 2, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2020, p. 609.

30 “Unattended” death refers to the death of a person who has not been seen by a medical doctor, physician or medical personnel within the scope of their professional capacities.

31 Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science of the National Institute of Standards and Technology), ANSI/ASB Standard 125: Organizational and Foundational Standard for Medicolegal Death Investigation, 1st ed., 2021.

32 See ICRC, “Humanity after Life”, above note 16.

33 Geneva Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 17.

34 Susan Breau and Rachel Taylor, Update on Discussion Paper: The Legal Obligation to Record Civilian Casualties of Armed Conflict, Every Casualty Counts, June 2022, available at: https://everycasualty.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Updated-discussion-paper-on-the-legal-obligation-to-record-casualties-2022-FINAL.pdf.

35 ICRC, Guiding Principles for Dignified Management of the Dead in Humanitarian Emergencies and to Prevent Them Becoming Missing Persons, Geneva, November 2021, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/guiding-principles-for-dignified-management-of-the-dead-in-humanitarian-emergencies-and-to-prevent-them-becoming-missing-persons.html.

36 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016), New York and Geneva, 2017 (Minnesota Protocol), available at: www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/MinnesotaProtocol.pdf.

37 Jose Pablo Baraybar, Inés Caridi and Jill Stockwell, “A Forensic Perspective on the New Disappeared: Migration Revisited”, in Roberto Parra, Sara C. Zapico and Douglas H. Ubelaker (eds), Forensic Science and Humanitarian Action: Interacting with the Dead and the Living, Vol. 1, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2020, p. 101.

38 ICRC, Missing Migrants and Their Families: The ICRC's Recommendations to Policy-Makers, Geneva, August 2017, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/missing-migrants-and-their-families-the-icrc-s-recommendations-to-policy-makers-pdf-en.html. See also the 2007 call of the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights for the EU to account for and identify migrant deaths, or the Council of Europe's proposal that European States set up a system of data collection for the mortal remains of persons killed at sea during the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, 8 June 2014.

39 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, UN Doc. A/RES/73/195, 11 January 2019, Objective 8.

40 ICRC, Counting the Dead: How Registered Deaths of Migrants in the Southern European Sea Border Provide Only a Glimpse of the Issue, Geneva, November 2022, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/counting-dead-icrc-report-migrants-dying-europe-borders.

41 S. Breau and R. Taylor, above note 34, p. 64.

42 Olga Joos, Srdjan Mrkic and Lynn Sferrazza, “Legal Frameworks: A Starting Point for Strengthening Medicolegal Death Investigation Systems and Improving Cause and Manner of Death Statistics in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems”, Academic Forensic Pathology, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2021, available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/19253621211027747.

43 M. Warner and P. A. Braun, above note 13, p. 14.

44 Geneva Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 135 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 122; Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287 (entered into force 21 October 1950), Art. 136.

45 ICRC, “Overview of the Legal Framework Governing National Information Bureaux”, April 2022, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/overview-of-the-legal-framework-governing-national-information-bureaux-pdf-en.html.

46 See ICRC, above note 3. See also Alexandra Ortiz and Ximena Londoño, “Implementing International Law: An Avenue for Preventing Disappearances, Resolving Cases of Missing Persons and Addressing the Needs of Their Families”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 99, No. 2, 2017.

47 In Colombia, for example, the peace agreement led to the creation of multiple transitional justice mechanisms, including a Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition Commission, a Special Jurisdiction for Peace and a Unit for the Search for Missing Persons. They all rely heavily on the work of the forensic services/institutions of the country to fulfil their role regardless of criminal or humanitarian objectives. See also M. Crettol et al., above note 28; A. Ortiz and X. Londoño, above note 46, p. 564.

48 ICRC, above note 4.

49 Claudia McGoldrick, “The State of Conflicts Today: Can Humanitarian Action Adapt?”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 97, No. 900, 2015, p. 1182.

50 Laurent Gisel, Pilar Gimeno, Ken Hume and Abby Zeith, “Urban Warfare: An Age-Old Problem in Need of New Solutions”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 27 April 2021, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2021/04/27/urban-warfare/.

51 C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1186.

52 ICRC, International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts, Geneva, 31 October 2015, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/international-humanitarian-law-and-challenges-contemporary-armed-conflicts . See also the main challenges in the African continent in relation to fulfilment of IHL obligations, in Namira Negm, “The African Union's Humanitarian Policies: A Closer Look at Africa's Regional Institutions and Practice”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 104, No. 920–921, 2022, available at: https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/reviews-pdf/2022-11/the-african-unions-humanitarian-policies-920.pdf.

53 ICRC, Explosive Weapons with Wide Area Effects: A Deadly Choice in Populated Areas, Geneva, January 2022.

54 See, for example, Antonio Guterres, The Highest Aspiration: A Call to Action for Human Rights, UN, 2020, available at: www.un.org/en/content/action-for-human-rights/index.shtml.

55 Maria Dolores Morcillo Mendez, “Evolución de la acción forense humanitaria del Comité International de la Cruz Roja hacia el desarrollo e implementación de programas sostenibles”, Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Forensic Pathology, La Rioja, Spain, 19–22 October 2022.

56 This is an observation based on twenty years of ICRC humanitarian forensic action in over fifty countries in all regions, where assessments of the medicolegal system have been conducted as part of forensic programmes.

57 This is, for example, the case in Lebanon, where the lack of proper forensic institutions for conducting post-mortem and clinical forensic examinations is a major obstacle in the implementation of any effort towards prevention and promotion of human rights, particularly in relation to missing persons, management of mass fatalities, medicolegal investigations of allegations of ill-treatment, and deaths in custody. See Ikram El Shaer, “Forensic Medicine in Lebanon: Illegitimate!”, Al-Akhbar, 29 April 2010, available in Arabic at: https://al-akhbar.com/Archive_Justice/114948.

58 For example, this is the case with the recent armed conflict in Ukraine, where a well-structured medicolegal system (judiciary, law enforcement and forensic institutions) is completely overwhelmed. Another example is Colombia, where the combined entities of the medicolegal system cannot cope with the excessive workload despite proper regulations and procedures being in place.

59 C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1182.

60 M. D. Morcillo Mendez, above note 55.

61 Monica Liliana Barriga Perez, “The Search for the Missing from a Humanitarian Approach as a Peruvian National Policy”, in R. Parra, S. C. Zapico and D. H. Ubelaker (eds), above note 37.

62 In some countries the final identification relies on law enforcement entities, while in others it relies on the judiciary. A great number of cases in these contexts remain unsolved because law enforcement and judicial practitioners lack the forensic expertise necessary to establish the scientific identification of an individual. See National Commission for the Search for Missing Persons, Recomendaciones para mejorar el proceso de identificación de víctimas, Bogotà, October 2011, available at: www.comisiondebusqueda.gov.co/images/abook_file/Recomendacionesprocesoidentificacion.pdf.

63 Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions on Medico-Legal Death Investigations, UN Doc. A/HRC/50/34, 16 June 2022. See also Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, UN Doc. A/69/387, 23 September 2014.

64 M. Salado Puerto et al., above note 21, p. 11.

65 M. Crettol et al., above note 28.

66 For example, Spain has included the strengthening of forensic services in the country's Plan Justicia 2030, aimed at improving the overall administration of justice, available at: www.justicia2030.es/inicio. More recently in Peru, as a result of the outcome of an assessment of the medicolegal system and procedures of the extraordinary mechanisms for the search for and identification of missing persons, the current government has approved specific support to improve the system by strengthening forensic services at various levels.

67 C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1183.

68 In various contexts, mortuaries and examination rooms are located within hospitals; destruction of health infrastructure therefore also has an impact on the provision of forensic services.

69 Diana Emilce Ramírez Páez, “Integration of Information on Missing Persons and Unidentified Human Remains: Best Practices”, in R. Parra, S. C. Zapico and D. H. Ubelaker (eds), above note 37, p. 159.

70 “Q&A: The ICRC and the ‘Humanitarian–Development–Peace Nexus’ Discussion”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 101, No. 912, 2019, p. 1057. See also ICRC, above note 4, p. 15; C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1195.

71 ICRC, When Rain Turns to Dust: Understanding and Responding to the Combined Impact of Armed Conflicts and the Climate and Environment Crisis on People's Lives, Geneva, 2020, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/when-rain-turns-to-dust-pdf-en.html.

72 Such documents include death certificates, kinship statements, age estimations and others that are required for many legal and administrative processes.

73 Alexandra Ortiz and Ximena Londoño, above note 46, provide a comprehensive summary of the different actions supporting States in their efforts to prevent and respond to the issue of missing persons. However, as will be discussed in the next sections of this article, challenges for States remain, and these already existing forms of support do not seem sufficient to bring about a decrease in humanitarian needs.

74 For more information and a full list of national IHL committees across the world, see ICRC, “Table of National Committees and Other National Bodies on International Humanitarian Law”, 26 April 2022, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/table-national-committees-and-other-national-bodies-international-humanitarian-law.

75 A. Ortiz and X. Londoño, above note 46.

76 Examples of these are the regulations that established mechanisms for missing persons in Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Peru. These regulations, when discussing operational aspects, refer to the “local entities or bodies” mandated by law to conduct forensic activities. Dysfunctionality, lack of required expertise and challenges facing local forensic services determine the outcome of the mechanism. In some examples showing better rates of success in the clarification of the fate and whereabouts of missing persons, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the law has considered operational aspects and has established a specific, independent, autonomous institution to conduct forensic work. In other cases, such as in Colombia or Ukraine, regulations on the different mechanisms for missing persons rely on local forensic services, but despite being strong and well-structured, these mechanisms’ capacities are overwhelmed and they have not received the financial and other resources required to operate effectively. See the ICRC National Practice Database, available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/national-practice.

77 Contexts such as Peru, Colombia and Ukraine have developed laws and created different mechanisms to approach the issue of missing persons. The functionality of the respective medicolegal systems and forensic capacities vary amongst these three contexts, but all of them face important gaps and challenges that greatly limit the effectiveness of the mechanisms.

78 See, for example, ICRC, Guidance Notes: National Mechanisms for Missing Persons: A Toolbox, Geneva, June 2022, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/national-mechanisms-for-missing-persons-a-toolbox-pdf-en.html.

79 M. D. Morcillo Mendez, above note 55.

80 Minnesota Protocol, above note 36.

81 In Colombia, for example, the judicial entities, law enforcement entities and forensic institutions are strong and largely functional, although with limitations in terms of human resources. Despite this, the search for and identification of missing persons face important challenges pertaining to the overall functioning of the system.

82 Most of the relevant humanitarian actions address first responders for the recovery of the dead and give less or no support to the other phases of the process.

83 Morris Tidball-Binz, “Global Forensic Science and the Search for the Dead and Missing from Armed Conflict: The Perspective of the International Committee of the Red Cross”, in Douglas H. Ubelaker (ed.), Forensic Science: Current Issues, Future Directions, 1st ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2012, p. 337.

84 The Forensic Unit was initially created in 2004 to follow up on the implementation of the conclusions and recommendations pertaining to the management of the dead of the Missing Persons Conference in 2003. As the understanding of the search for missing persons process has improved, the objectives of the Forensic Unit have also evolved to include (1) ensuring that investigative and forensic methodologies are applied in the institutional search for missing persons and in the management of the dead, and (2) providing advice and technical support for the strengthening of medicolegal systems. However, as will be discussed in the following sections of this article, further efforts are required to ensure that this strengthening takes place at all levels for the desired impact on the prevention and resolution of issues of humanitarian concern.

85 Cordner, Stephen and Tidball-Binz, Morris, “Humanitarian Forensic Action – Its Origins and Future”, Forensic Science International, Vol. 279, 2017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

86 Ibid., p. 65.

87 Jemmy T. Bouzin et al., “Mind the Gap: The Challenges of Sustainable Forensic Science Service Provision”, Forensic Science International: Synergy, Vol. 6, 2023, available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2023.100318.

88 M. D. Morcillo Mendez, above note 55.

89 A recent positive example in this regard is the creation by the ICRC of the African Centre for Medicolegal Systems (ACMS). The ACMS aims at the strengthening of medicolegal systems and forensic institutions as an essential component of the overall required actions in Africa for States to respond to the extreme humanitarian needs of affected populations in this continent. The goal of the ACMS is to improve advocacy and humanitarian diplomacy efforts amongst relevant fora by informing policy-makers, improving the professional response of practitioners in medicolegal systems, and exchanging lessons learned and best practices by convening regional events and coordinating and collaborating with African and international policy and practice communities. See ICRC, “African Centre for Medicolegal Systems”, available at: https://missingpersons.icrc.org/acms.

90 Speech given by ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, 28 November 2022, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/international-humanitarian-law-in-divided-world.

91 M. Salado Puerto et al., above note 21. See also ICRC, above note 35.

92 Slim, Hugo, Solferino 21: Warfare, Civilians and Humanitarians in the Twenty-First Century, C. Hurst & Co., London, 2022Google Scholar.

93 N. Negm, above note 52, p. 1924.

94 See “Q&A”, above note 70, p. 1062. In this interview, ICRC policy adviser Filipa Schmitz Guinote defines sustainable impact as a “situation where long-term or chronic needs and protection-related risks arising from armed conflict and chronic violence are durably reduced or prevented. Importantly, this should be done by supporting the resilience of affected people and the essential services and systems they rely on, but also through the actions of duty bearers.” In a recent interview, Peter Maurer, former president of the ICRC, also emphasizes the “importance of building bridges to other societal agendas, aspirations and constituencies: humanitarian work as much as it has to be rooted in neutral and impartial action needs also to be connected to efforts for peace, human rights development and climate change”. See “Interview with Peter Maurer”, above note 1, p. 1516.

95 See “Q&A”, above note 70, p. 1062. Here, Filipa Schmitz Guinote refers to the need for the “triple nexus” interaction in order to achieve sustainable impact, “because impact is not achievable through humanitarian action alone – it requires and relies on decisions and choices made by authorities and by political, diplomatic and military stakeholders, as well as by development donors with the power and responsibility to bring about development and peace”. Schmitz Guinote also explains how the transition from humanitarian aid to development actions is not linear, and that both forms of aid must occur simultaneously and in a coordinated manner for the required sustainable impact. This is particularly relevant in the case of protection programmes.

96 M. Crettol et al., above note 28, p. 598.

97 Namely the Special Rapporteurs on torture, extrajudicial killings, etc. See UN Doc. A/HRC/50/34, above note 63.

98 Namely the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

99 Hugo Slim, “Reflections of a Humanitarian Bureaucrat”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 9 January 2020, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2020/01/09/reflections-humanitarian-bureaucrat/. See also C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1192.

100 C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1201.

101 UN, above note 14, p. 19.

102 S. Cordner and M. Tidball-Binz, above note 85.

103 Nicholas Hawton, “The Art of Influencing: How to Maximize Impact in a Complex, Interconnected World”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 8 December 2022, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/12/08/influencing-impact-complex-world/.

104 R. Kitching and A. Quintin, above note 2.

105 M. Crettol et al., above note 28, p. 594.

106 The ICRC's Advisory Service has developed legislative checklists which national IHL committees may use to identify areas that need to be strengthened within their State's domestic legal framework. For additional reflection on the role of IHL national committees, see also R. Kitching and A. Quintin, above note 2.

107 “Q&A”, above note 70, p. 1059.

108 C. McGoldrick, above note 49, p. 1206.

109 “Q&A”, above note 70, p. 1066.

110 Ibid., p. 1053.