Taking the law out of the books
I spent the past 20 years working in and around war-torn countries, first as a specialised lawyer in the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR), then as a responsible for the legal training at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) creating and facilitating workshops and courses as well as innovative training communication tools, and finally as a consultant mainly focusing on simplifying the law for NGOs, humanitarian professionals, weapon bearers, and quite a few other interesting projects, mainly for the conflict in Syria.
I’ve always believed that the law needed to be taken out of the books and endeavoured throughout my various commitments to make it as accessible as possible, be it in the judgements or other judicial decisions, training events and tools, or leaflets, videos, 3D animations, communication materials, etc.
Making the law accessible to all and giving it its full meaning
Some would call it “Legal Design”: the application of human-centered design to the world of law, to make legal systems and services more human-centered, usable, and satisfying.
And this is perhaps it: how can we, as specialised lawyers – and in my case dealing with international humanitarian law / the laws of war, human rights, refugee law and other tools aiming at preserving human dignity in such difficult living conditions – make the law accessible to all, easier to understand, to ultimately give it its full meaning.
In essence it is perhaps just a matter of common sense. If those international rules aim at protecting people and their dignity, they must be understood by as many people as possible.
Taking the key messages to the street and contribute to a better understanding
So this time, after having taken the law out of the books for so many years, I decided to take it to the street, hence the creation of the simple designs you will find on this website, which you’ll be able to get printed on almost whatever you like (see the “Products” section).
Each of them embodies international rules protecting human dignity in times of war, hence the brand “HD – Human Dignity”.
But HD also stands for “High Definition”. The rules are most of the time so complicated in their wording and the way the specialists talk about it that we hear everything and its contrary, be it in the newspapers, TV, social media, conversations, and at the end of the day it all becomes very “blurry”. So eventually, thanks to those key messages, more and more people will read, see, understand in higher definition if not full HD.
Become Ambassador of the rules protecting human dignity
In addition those wearing those designs will become ambassadors of those rules and if they like will also be able to explain why those rules are important and how they protect the people, thanks to the explanation provided for each design and the additional resources suggested.
And if this still does not suffice and you still have more questions, just sent me a line through the contact section and I’ll be happy to exchange on all those important protective rules.
I also have in mind – if the project is a success! – to then create more designs, this time focused on human rights and the laws protecting refugees.
Quite sure there is much more to come!
Vincent.