About the author(s):
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University where she teaches IHL and IHRL. Before joining Utrecht University, she worked at the ICTY, ICC and Norton Rose Fulbright. She is the author of The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2017) which won the 2018 Lieber Prize. She has written widely about the framework of law that applies to armed groups in non-international armed conflicts and is one of the editors of the Armed Groups and International Law blog.
Today the most recent update was published on the ICRC customary IHL database. The most recent update integrates practice up till the end of 2010 of the following countries: Bangladesh, Ireland, Nigeria, Peru, Sri Lanka, the United States of America and Zimbabwe. Practice from Guinea has been updated up till the end of 2011 and practice from Malaysia has been updated up till the end of 2012. Practice from the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR) and the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has also been updated, up till the end of 2010.Practice in the Treaties and Other Instruments sections has been updated up till the end of 2011.
Over on the Intercross blog, the ICRC’s Head of Project for Customary Law, Els Debuf explains why customary IHL is so important despite the existence of so many treaties already covering armed conflict. The blog advertises the fact that next week it will feature a post by an Emory professor, who is involved in reasearching and collecting US practice, about the challenges that process entails.