The High-Level Expert Meetings on Current Challenges to International Humanitarian Law are commonly referred to as the Alabama Process. The initiative is named after the Alabama Room in the Old City of Geneva, where the first Geneva Convention was adopted in 1864. Co-organized by the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University, in cooperation with HPCR International, the main goal of the process is to engage a constituency of governmental and independent experts in discussion of the core challenges for international humanitarian law in contemporary conflicts. Its aim is the promotion of research and policy activities among the IHL community. Two meetings were held in January 2003 and June 2004, out of which emerged a number of working and background papers focusing on key themes and challenges related to IHL. A third meeting was convened May 22-24, 2006, in Montreux, Switzerland.

First Informal, High-Level Expert Meeting

On January 27-29, 2003, an Informal, High-Level Expert Meeting on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law was held for a small group of state and independent experts. The meeting was conceived as an opportunity to identify and address key legal challenges to IHL in contemporary conflict situations and to propose an agenda for potential further research. The event constituted an occasion to explore the possibilities of fostering a mode of informal, expert-based dialogue and to launch an action-oriented research agenda.

Select issues identified at the Expert Meeting for further research were:

• Direct Participation of Civilians in Hostilities
• The Impact of High- and Low-Technology Warfare on IHL
• Suicide Attacks Against Civilians during an Armed Conflict
• Humanitarian Access to the Civilian Population
• Compliance with IHL by Non-State Actors (NSAs)

As follow-up to the Expert Meeting, a series of thematic webpages was launched on the International Humanitarian Law Research Portal. Addressing each of the five themes raised by the January 2003 meeting, as well as a sixth theme, Occupation and Peacebuilding, pages are subdivided into four sections that include a working paper written by an IHL expert, selected literature, legal materials, and related news. The thematic pages are intended to encourage to the greatest extent possible the sharing of information relative to the identified topics.

Second, Informal High-Level Expert Meeting

On June 25-27, 2004, a second Expert Meeting on Current Challenges to International Humanitarian Law took place. The meeting built on the experience and outcomes of the 2003 gathering and explored further some of the areas of interest previously identified, as well as new areas of research.

Primary themes of discussion included:

• Computers and War: The Impact of High-Tech Warfare on the Application of IHL
• Article 43 of the Hague Regulations and Peace Operations in the 21st Century
• Improving Compliance with IHL

The following key issues were also identified for further research:

(i) The 'reverberating' effects of computer network attacks (CNAs): Proportionality,
precaution in attack, and accountability.
(ii) The distinction between cybercrime by hackers, terrorist CNAs, and military CNAs during armed conflict: Definitions, issues, and international humanitarian law responses.
(iii) Applicability of IHL (Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions) and CNAs.
(iv) Scope of application of Article 43 of the Hague Regulations and Article 64 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: ratione situationis, ratione materiae and ratione temporis.
(v) The interface of international humanitarian law and human rights in peacebuilding.
(vi) Transnational armed groups and international humanitarian law
(vii) Rules governing legislative development during peacebuilding operations.
(viii) Special agreements under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and other related tools: Scope, actors, and content.
(ix) Legal regimes, scope, and implications of collective responsibility for ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law under Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions.
(x) Implications of granting amnesty to members of armed groups as incentive for compliance with IHL: Compliance, recognition, and expectations.

Third, Informal High-Level Expert Meeting

The Third Informal, High-Level Expert Meeting on Current Challenges to International Humanitarian Law was convened in Montreux, Switzerland on May 22-24, 2006. The meeting was co-hosted by representatives of the Government of Switzerland and the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research based at Harvard University (HPCR), in cooperation with HPCR International. The purpose of the meeting was to take stock of recent research and policy developments on international humanitarian law (IHL). In particular, the meeting reviewed the preliminary draft manual on IHL applicable to air and missile warfare. Please see the Summary of the Co-Chairs for a brief review of the meeting.