The International Committee of Military Medicine, the ICMM Reference Centre for Education of International Humanitarian Law and Ethics, and the Swiss Armed Forces Medical Services Directorate wish to offer to young Military Medical Personnel, Military Medico-Legal Officers, and Chaplains as well as other interested members of the armed forces a course on Military Medical Ethics (MME).
03–07 September 2023
General Information on the Military Medical Ethics Course
This advanced course aims at qualifying the participants to make correct decisions in situations where competences in international law and ethics are similarly relevant. The capacity is built and trained by means of case studies which are drawn on situations and reports from recent deployment.
The concrete cases and topics can vary from year to year and will reflect current needs. Cases from the experience of course participants are welcome but should be made in advance to allow for a sound preparation of the analysis
The course aims at…
- … enabling participants to recognize and analyze situations that present ethical and legal dilemmas from contemporary military deployments;
- … qualifying the participants to make legally and ethically sound decisions in situations where competences in international law and ethics are similarly relevant.
Course Program
- The provisional Course program can be downloaded here (PDF, EN).
Information about the mandatory e-learning before the course further below on this page! - For questions regarding the course or the registration, please contact
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Hybrid Classroom Course 2023
The 11th ICMM Course on Military Medical Ethics in Times of Armed Conflict (Military Medical Ethics/ MME) will take place from 03–07 September 2023. It will be the held as a hybrid classroom course with participants both on-site in Spiez (CH) and online.
In preparation for the course, participants will get access to an e-learning tool and will have to follow some exercises online. Participants are free to schedule when they do these tasks (which amount to about 5-7h in total) within three weeks before the course.
The main course will be held on-site and via videoconferencing and the participants and teachers will meet during fixed times in the virtual environment. Hence, the usual format of the course that includes some lectures and much groupwork and discussions will be transferred into a hybrid classroom. In addition, external experts may join the course for lectures. Thus, the hybrid course shall be as close to the in situ course format as possible and shall offer as much direct exchange between the participants and the teaching team as possible.
Application for the course
The application phase for the course is now closed. All participants have been informed.
Please carefully read the course information on this page before applying. For your application, you will need a short letter of motivation and a very short CV. They will help us in selecting participants if we receive more applications than we can accommodate. Participants will be selected with the aim of putting together a well-balanced group of participants to allow for productive discussions.
Criteria for selection
- The motivation and previous knowledge/ expertise/ experience of applicants
- The function and institutional role of applicants
- Date when the application is received
- The number of participants per country is usually limited to 2.
For questions regarding the course or the registration, please contact
Language
- The course is held in English language. Participants must have sufficient knowledge in English to read texts, understand presentations, and to participate in discussions.
Course Fee
On-site-participation
- A fee of 1440.00 CHF will be charged (1290 CHF accommodation and 150 CHF course fee)
It includes- Accommodation in the hotel, all meals, non-alcoholic beverages for the course duration.
- Access to the online material and the preparatory e-learning session.
- Extensive course documents, cultural events and excursions with transfers are free of charge for participants and will be paid by the Swiss Confederation.
- Participants are requested to pay the course fee in CHF (cash or credit-cards) on the day of their arrival at the registration desk.
- Participants shall bear their travelling costs to and from Switzerland.
- The course organisation has the possibility to financially support selected participants upon application. For further details contact
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Online-particpation
- A course fee of 100 CHF is charged to participants.
- The course fee includes access to the online material, the preparatory e-learning session, and the virtual classroom sessions of the main course.
- If you are unable to pay the fee, please indicate your reasons on the registration form. We will evaluate a waiver of the course fee in individual cases.
Certificate & Accreditation
Successful participants will receive a certificate issued by the Swiss Armed Forces Medical Services Directorate and the ICMM Center of Reference for Education on IHL and Ethics.
In addition, the course was accredited as follows:
The 11th Course on Military Medical Ethics in Times of Armed Conflict (MME), Spiez, Switzerland, 03/09/2023-07/09/2023 has been accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Through an agreement between the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes and the American Medical Association, physicians may convert EACCME® credits to an equivalent number of AMA PRA |
Conditions to participate online
The following conditions must be met by everybody who wishes to participate in the 2023 MME hybrid classroom course. Even though the course is held as a hybrid classroom course, it is not a passive e-learning course, but all participants and teachers will meet online during fixed times in a closed videoconference room.
Course Schedule – mandatory sessions
- Access to a mandatory e-learning module will be given to all participants before the course.
All participants must follow the e-learning individually and complete some tasks online in weeks 32-34. A total of 5-7h is needed to complete the e-learning. - The main course will be run from Sunday, September 03 to Thursday, September 07, 2023.
Daily fixed hours are between 0830 to 1600 CEST (Zurich time), including breaks. In addition, participants should be able to spend 1h00 during the rest of their working day for individual follow-up of the course. - Participants are expected to be
(1) available during the virtual classroom hours during the whole week (in week 36) and
(2) in an environment that allows them to follow the course and to participate in discussions. Usually, this means they should have a separate room in order not to be disturbed by other or disturb them when talking. - In sum, the course will consist of 29 hours. An individual preparation time of 5-7h before the main course week, 18-20h virtual classroom sessions, and 4h individual follow-up during the course week.
Technical requirements
- A computer or tablet with a webcam and microphone. A mobile phone is not sufficient.
- The software “zoom conferences” will be used for videoconferencing and must be installed by all participants. A paid subscription to zoom is not needed by participants.
- Internet access with sufficient bandwidth for videoconferences.
- Unrestricted access to “zoom conferences” and the websites https://e-courses.melac.ch/ and https://scenarios.militarymedicalethics.ch must be guaranteed during the whole course. Potential restrictions by security settings or military firewalls must be checked beforehand by the participants.
- The use of a headset is strongly recommended.
Teachers of the 2023 course
Ethics teachers
IHL/ LOAC teacher
- COL Cord von Einem