By: Jennifer Jun, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI)’s latest and most ambitious effort to try to limit the harms caused by armed conflicts worldwide – the International Humanitarian Law Compliance Monitoring Database (ICMD) – was successfully launched on Friday, 25 October 2024 in partnership with the Embassy of New Zealand in Sweden and with support from the Swedish foundation Justa Gardi. More than thirty ambassadors and representatives from government and non-governmental organizations gathered at the residence of the New Zealand Ambassador to Sweden, Mr. David Taylor, on this historic occasion marking a significant step forward in advancing global accountability and transparency in armed conflicts.
The event opened with a sobering call to action by Ambassador Taylor: “In these increasingly turbulent times, we need champions. We need more heroes like Raoul Wallenberg. We need commitment from organizations like RWI to help us all navigate these extremely difficult and sensitive issues.”
“In these increasingly turbulent times, we need champions. We need more heroes like Raoul Wallenberg. We need commitment from organizations like RWI to help us all navigate these extremely difficult and sensitive issues.” – Ambassador of New Zealand to Sweden, Mr. David Taylor
RWI’s executive director Peter Lundberg and RWI’s coordinator for ICMD Dr. Manuel Galvis presented the rationale, design, and roadmap for the ICMD initiative, emphasizing the initiative’s complementarity to existing research and database efforts in the international humanitarian law and human rights landscape and, in line with RWI’s forty-year track record as a widely-trusted human rights and humanitarian law institute, stressed the initiative’s commitment to neutrality and integrity as a repository of carefully-vetted information.
“The ICMD is the first global platform of its kind, designed to compile, aggregate, and analyze data on compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law,” Mr. Lundberg explained, “and with the advent of AI and other fast-developing advances in technology, we are only now able to embark on this pioneering journey to greatly improve how we understand and respond to armed conflicts across the globe.”
In response to the presentation, Ambassador Barbara Jones of Ireland noted, “During the Second World War, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg relied on the best technology at his disposal at that time to save the lives of tens of thousands who would have otherwise perished in the Holocaust, and I’m delighted to see RWI follow suit in looking to the latest technology to transform international humanitarian law compliance.”
“The ICMD is the first global platform of its kind, designed to compile, aggregate, and analyze data on compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law, and with the advent of AI and other fast-developing advances in technology, we are only now able to embark on this pioneering journey to greatly improve how we understand and respond to armed conflicts across the globe.” – RWI Executive Director, Peter Lundberg
The event concluded with a call for partnership and support from governments, academic partners, and other stakeholders seeking to better understand, monitor, and respond to international humanitarian challenges, and more holistically, to create a pathway for compliance to lead to the prevention of international humanitarian law violations. For additional information on the ICMD and RWI’s broader mission, please visit www.icmd.se and www.rwi.lu.se.