Joint IHL Forum - December 2012

עברית

ALMA and the Radzyner School of Law of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) would like to invite you to the next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum. The session will be held on December 5, 2012, between 18:30 - 20:30 in room C110 (Arazi-Ofer Building, 2nd floor) in the IDC.

In this session Dr. Ben Clarke will present his new paper (co-authored with Christian Rouffaer):

"Beyond the Call of Duty: Integration of International Humanitarian Law in Video Games and Battlefield Training Simulators"

(Forthcoming in the International Review of the Red Cross)

Video games and battlefield training simulators are influencing users perceptions about what soldiers are permitted to do during war. They may also be influencing the way fighters actually behave during today's armed conflicts. By the age of ten, many children have absorbed ideas about war, violence and cruelty conveyed by blockbuster video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and Battlefield. Whilst a highly entertaining form of escapism for millions of players, some games create the impression that torture and extra-judicial killing are standard behaviour. This article highlights messages video games send and responses they have triggered. The authors argue that further integration of international humanitarian law (IHL) can improve knowledge of the rules of war among millions of players, including budding recruits and deployed soldiers. This, in turn, offers the promise of greater respect for IHL on tomorrow's battlefields.

Dr. Ben Clarke is a former Legal Adviser in the ICRC’s Unit of Thematic Legal Advisers, and a former consultant to the ICRC’s Arms Carriers Unit and its Unit on Civil Society Relations. He is currently working as a consultant to NGOs and as an Adjunct Professor, University of Notre Dame Australia

Following the presentation there will be an open round-table discussion.

The presentation and the discussion will be conducted in English.

The Joint International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Forum of ALMA and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya is an academic round table for an open discussion on IHL related issues.

Each Session will include one or more short lectures following an open round table discussion.

The possible topics for the forum sessions include (inter alia) recently published articles or advanced draft articles, recent relevant court rulings and interesting developments which can be related to IHL. The main lecturers in the Joint Forum are Scholars, PhD candidates and Practitioners from the IHL field.