DO Newsletter: September/October Issue 2009

10th Bruges Colloquium on International Humanitarian Law

The Colloquium on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is celebrating its tenth anniversary! This year’s seminar entitled ‘Armed Conflicts and Parties to Armed Conflicts under IHL: Confronting Legal Categories to Contemporary Realities’ will be taking place in Bruges on 22-23 October. Like previous editions it is organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with the Development Office.
The programme will include contributions by experts from the ICRC, the Council of the EU, national ministries and various universities, law schools and defence academies. Together with around 100 expected participants they will discuss the legal categories of armed conflicts considering the impact of other types of violence, the qualification of armed conflicts in multinational operations and the adaptation of the established legal categories to new realities. Participation in the Colloquium is by invitation only. The main findings will be summarised in the Collegium, the academic journal of the College of Europe (see article below).

Coming soon: 39th edition of academic journal

The 39th Collegium titled ‘Transfers of Persons in Situations of Armed Conflict’ will soon be published on the College of Europe website.
The autumn edition of the academic journal is a compact summary of the 2008 Colloquium on International Humanitarian Law by the International Committee of the Red Cross. It includes speeches from the ICRC, NATO, UN, the Council of the EU, ministries and organisations. Collegium is published by the Delegation of the ICRC in Brussels and has been edited by the Development Office. In line with the College’s strong commitment towards the environment, the number of printed copies will be limited while the journal will be made available online.

Comparing the carbon inventories of European cities

Carbon of European cities and regions are often not comparable. This is the result of a study carried out by researchers from the Development Office of the College of Europe with the support of Institut Veolia Environnement.
The results show that the methodologies underlying the inventories differ in some important points such as the calculation of CO2 equivalents, the boundaries of the measurement or the greenhouse gases covered. The study focused not only on the differences but also highlighted ways of greater comparability. The project which was co-funded by Institut Veolia Environnement was launched in autumn 2008 (see also DO Newsletter May/June 2009).