Maat organizes a training workshop on “Involving youth in promoting the four Geneva Conventions in light of contemporary armed conflicts.”

Youth recommend developing a mechanism to prevent contracting with military companies to engage in non-international armed conflicts

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights organizes, in cooperation with the Global Coalition for Limitation of Armaments (GCLA) and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, a youth-targeted training workshop entitled: “Involving Youth in Promoting the Four Geneva Conventions in Light of Contemporary Armed Conflicts". The workshop, which was conducted at Maat’s headquarters and via the Zoom application, was attended by more than one hundred young men and women, including university students and graduates, from Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. The workshop aimed at integrating young people and building their capabilities in the field of IHL, in addition to adopting proposals to be presented in United Nations meetings.

Ayman Okeil, a human rights expert and President of Maat, opened the workshop by highlighting the importance of raising the awareness of youth about IHL and the need to engage them, along with women, in issues relevant to conflict resolution and arms control.

Peter Kolarov, a representative of the Office for Disarmament Affairs, discussed the International Disarmament Law and action programs in the field of arms, and addressed the international mechanisms for disarmament affairs, including the Conference on Disarmament and the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM), while explaining the importance of the role of civil society in participating in disarmament conferences.

For his part, Dr. Walid Barham, an expert in the field of international humanitarian law, explained the nature of international humanitarian law and the legal differences between international and non-international armed conflicts, in addition to the principles governing the means and methods of warfare.

Ahmed Al-Alfi, Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Public International Law at Beni Suef University, touched upon the international conventions relative to the protection of civilians, mechanisms for implementing IHL, and the current armed conflict situations.

In the fourth session of the training workshop, Dr. Hossam El Din Allam talked about the essence of IHL, the Geneva Conventions and the categories protected under them.

In the closing session, Nourhan Mustafa, Director of the International Human Law Unit at Maat, showed Maat’s strenuous efforts in disarmament and the key program of actions that it works on in the field of disarmament. Mustafa referred also to the Association’s participation in the 2nd session of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), which was held on 25-29 July 2022, and its remarkable achievement in involving civil society organizations (CSOs) in discussions on the draft final report of the 2nd session of the 2022 Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems.

The event was concluded by the set of recommendations presented by young people, such as the need to limit the illegal transfer of weapons to armed and terrorist groups as well as the need to engage and empower youth to participate in the achievement of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Youth also recommended the establishment of a special mechanism to prevent contracting with military and engaging them in non-international armed conflicts, which may be international by proxy.

The youth was also recommended to establish a special mechanism to prevent contracting with mercenary companies to engage in non-international armed conflicts, which may be international by proxy.