Reparation for Victims of Armed Conflict

This Committee was formed in May 2003The first project of the Committee is that of stock-taking--a general survey of theories and practices relating to compensation for victims of war. The result is a 49-page Background Report prepared by Professor Rainer Hofmann, Co-Rapporteur, and Dr. Frank Riemann of Harvard University, in time for the Committee's workshop in Berlin, August 2004.At this workshop, the Committee agreed on a division of labour between the Co-Rapporteurs: Professor Hofmann would focus on the substantive aspects of the compensation issue, Professor Furuya, the procedural. Both would circulate their first drafts to members of the Committee for comments and suggestions by the end of 2005. Plans were also made for the Committee to hold an intersessional meeting in Frankfurt on September 4-6, 2005. Its findings, along with the revised first drafts, were discussed in Toronto in 2006. Taking these drafts and the ensuing discussions into account, the Co-Rapporteurs are now preparing a draft Declaration of International Law Principles on Compensation for Victims of War (in the form of Articles and Commentaries). The draft Declaration will be circulated to all members by the end of September 2007 for their comments and suggestions, which will be discussed and reviewed at the ILA's Brazil Conference in August 2008. It is planned that the final draft Declaration will be submitted to the ILA for adoption at its Conference at the Hague in 2010.