The Islamic Committee of the International Crescent Delegation participated in the 49th Round Table on Current Issues of International Humanitarian Law San Remo, Italy September 9–11, 2026
the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent (ICIC) comprising H.E. Ambassador Ali Mahmoud Bohadma, ICIC President, and Dr. Mohamed Hamad Elasbali, ICIC Executive Director participated in the 49th Round Table on Current Issues of International Humanitarian Law. Held at the headquarters of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL) in San Remo, Italy, on September 9 to 11, 2026, the event was titled: “The New Nature of Warfare and International Humanitarian Law: Adapting to Complexities and Emerging Challenges.”
The Round Table saw broad international participation, bringing together 158 experts, representatives of humanitarian organizations, armed forces personnel, and academics from around the world. Discussions focused on the legal and ethical challenges arising in modern warfare. Over the course of the three days, the agenda was structured into intensive working sessions addressing the following key topics:
– Emerging technological challenges: Regulating the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in combat and autonomous combat systems (such as drone swarms), and ensuring their compliance with the principles of distinction and proportionality.
– Cyberspace and future warfare: Prohibiting digital attacks on civilian infrastructure (water networks, power plants, hospitals) and classifying such acts as war crimes under IHL.
– Siege tactics and urban operations: A review of the obligations of warring parties during city sieges; securing safe humanitarian corridors; and the prohibition of starving civilians as a method of warfare.
– Transition from conflict to peace: legal and logistical frameworks during transitional periods, the clearance of remnants of war, and the exchange of prisoners and detainees in cooperation with international relief organizations.
While attending this international forum, the ICIC delegation held a series of significant bilateral meetings with various participants to strengthen field partnerships and discuss matters of mutual interest. Key meetings included discussions with the IIHL President , the President of the Jordanian Red Crescent during which he raised the need to develop a fourth protocol addressing new challenges in the application of IHL. and with the President of the Iraqi Red Crescent, with whom arrangements were reviewed for the international forum organized by the Social Peace building Center (the “Baghdad Dialogue”) regarding the role of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in building social peace and applying IHL.
