Hello,
My name is Marine, I am French, and here is a photo of myself and my boyfriend Nico. I am also a mum, and my son Lucas is almost 5 years old. When we learned from TV and newspaper that a war between Israel and Iran was imminent, we felt sad and afraid. But I trust communication and mass mobilization can help decision makers think twice. So here is my short story. I work for the Red Cross, and teaching International Humanitarian Law is part of my job. I teach people that even war has rules.
I teach that the Geneva Conventions of 1949 aims to protect people who are not participating to war such as prisoners of war, surrounding, wounded or sick soldiers, civilians. Because our grandparents were bombed. And they decided that no one in the world should be bombed again.
Civilians are you, me, our families, our friends. We should know that there are international laws aiming to protect us. We must know it, and talk about it. Everyone, soldier, politician, businessman, everyone should know about it, and take their decisions regarding these laws. They must know that any war crime will be prosecuted by the International Court of Justice.
I teach them that no one should “be ready to die” for any war. I teach it because if everybody knows about it, then our governments will have no excuse for justifying any bombing, of any kind. I teach it because I hope that in a close future, developing or selling cluster munitions or nuclear bombs or any kind or weapon that could hurt civilians will be severely punished by efficient international law. Many of them don’t care much about it because they don’t feel at stake. I do. For the people I love, but also for my brothers and sisters from abroad.
