The 18th Course on the International Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) and the 4th Course on Military Medical Ethics in Times of Armed Conflict (MME) will take place from 19.-26. August 2016 in Spiez, Switzerland. Both courses are addressed to the Military Medical Personnel, Military Medico-Legal Officers, and Chaplains and are mandated by the International Committee of Military Medicine.

The courses are organized by the Swiss Armed Forces Medical Services Directorate.

Further information

• Law of the Armed Conflict: LOAC-Course page
• Military Medical Ethics: MME-Course page

Information about the other regional courses will follow, please also check our course agenda

We are delighted to announce the publication of an Editorial entitled

When childhood ends: estimating the age of young people

The editorial has been published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and can be accessed via the following link:
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.h6699?ijkey=JOdmIXWLlKh4PEz&keytype=ref

In early 2014, the ICMM Center of Reference for Education on IHL and Ethics was contacted by COMEDS and asked to provide an ethical analysis of the issues related to medical age estimation procedures. During the 4th ICMM Workshop on Military Medical Ethics held at Forum Lilienberg in April 2014, a first assessment of the topic was done with invited experts. Further research was then conducted within the ICMM Center of Reference, and a report was presented to COMEDS in November 2014.

Our current academic editorial sums up the results of our research undertaken to answer the initial COMEDS’ request and gives you an overview on the related ethical questions.

Please find information about further publications of the ICMM Center of Reference at publications.melac.ch/

Recently, a number of articles have been published that have been authored or co-authored by members and collaborators of the ICMM Center of Reference for Education on IHL and Ethics.

• A short piece to the EuroISME-Blog entitled "Protection of Health Care During Conflict. A neglected moral imperative" was contributed by Daniel Messelken. Read the full article here.
• The 2015-01 issue of the E-Journal Ethics and Armed Forces on the topic "Saving the Enemy? Military Medical Personnel under Fire" was strongly supported by the ICMM RefC with contributions from Daniel Messelken, Cord von Einem, and Bernhard Koch who all teach in ICMM Courses.
  You can download the full issue here.
  The contribution by Daniel Messelken was also republished in the ICMM's International Review of the Armed Forces Medical Services, Vol. 88, Nr. 3, pp. 56-59.
  Download a PDF of the IRAFMS reprint here.
• A "Perspectives" piece in the WHO-Bulletin on the topic "Counterterrorism policies and practices: health and values at stake".
  Co-authored by D. Messelken. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.14.144816

Members of the ICMM Center of Reference were interviewed on two occasions.

• For a contribution in the German Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift Cord von Einem and Daniel Messelken were interviewed by Nina Ospelt for an article with the title "Ärzte bei der Bundeswehr: Dienst auf Station und im Feldlazarett".
• Daniel Messelken was interviewed for the "Expert Corner" in the ICRC's Health Care in Danger Programme Newsletter (LINK)
  

For the sixth time, the ICMM Reference Centre for Education on IHL and Ethics together with the Medical Services Directorate of the Swiss Armed Forces and the Center for Military Medical Ethics at Zurich University organise their annual joint workshop at the shore of the Lake Constance.
It will take place from 19-21 May 2016 at Forum Lilienberg in Ermatingen (CH).

Focus in 2016: Military Medical Ethics and Hybrid Warfare

The main topic of the 2016 workshop will be Military Medical Ethics and Hybrid Warfare. Much has been discussed about new forms of warfare and recent developments have proven that realities can change very fast. There has been much less discussion, however, on the implications of these new forms of warfare for the medical services. Our workshop wants to fill this gap and discuss ethical challenges for military and civil health care services that emerge out of new forms of deployment and conflict scenarios.

We invite papers/presentations on topics addressing ethical questions faced by medical services in the context of so-called hybrid warfare. We equally encourage reports from the field (e.g. case studies) as well as philosophic papers or legal analyses.

Presentations are expected to last 25 minutes in order to leave enough time for discussion. The presentations will be edited in a comprehensive book on MME in Hybrid Warfare (see section Conference Proceedings in the full CfP (PDF)).

Any other topics of more general relevance for military medical ethics are also welcome as there might be one open session during the workshop.

• Download full Call for Papers with instructions how to send your proposal here.
• Workshop subpage with registration form and further information.