Some 50 specialists of international law, researchers and representatives of the international community, the Armenian government and civil society are meeting in Yerevan to discuss the challenges currently facing humanitarian work.

The event, taking place on the sidelines of the annual Yerevan conference on international humanitarian law for young researchers, was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and moderated by Vladimir Vardanyan, professor of international law at the Armenian-Russian University and head of the Legal Advisory Service of Armenia's Constitutional Court.

Increasingly, humanitarian organizations face difficulty obtaining access to people suffering the effects of armed conflicts or other violence. "Understanding the legal basis for humanitarian action in different situations of violence is essential for building dialogue with actors on the ground," said Marco Sassòli, professor at the University of Geneva.

The online version of the leading casebook on international humanitarian law, "How Does Law Protect in War," of which Prof. Sassòli is co-author, was launched at the event.

With the new online platform, scholars and practitioners alike will have easy access to a virtually exhaustive and up-to-date source of materials on international humanitarian law.

“Rules of IHL do not operate in a legal vacuum. Thus International Human Rights obligations create limitation on the right of states to deny humanitarian access,” said Levon Gevorgyan, professor at Yerevan State University, referring to the challenges of humanitarian action.

The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross, which features articles on the 150th anniversary of the ICRC's humanitarian work, was also presented at the event.