On February 27, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. One in four schools in the Vitebsk region will study the course "Exploring Humanitarian Law" by the end of the current year, as reported to BELTA by Galina Zhelanova, Chairperson of the Vitebsk Regional Organization of the Belarusian Red Cross Society (BRCS). In accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Education of Belarus and the BRCS on international humanitarian law and joint activities aimed at humanising the educational process, the course "Exploring Humanitarian Law" was studied in 95 general education schools in the region in 2011. This course allows students to realise the importance of humanitarian law norms in the life of every person. About a hundred young course attendees took part in the first regional Dunant readings. As Galina Zhelanova noted, innovative approaches are increasingly being used in the study of the course. For example, a virtual museum of the Red Cross has been created at Secondary School No. 45 in Vitebsk. It is expected that by the end of the current year, the course "Exploring Humanitarian Law" will be studied in 138 schools in the region (24% of the total number). Under the auspices of the United Nations, four Geneva Conventions were developed and adopted in 1949, and in 1977, two Additional Protocols to them, which form the basis of modern international humanitarian law. The majority of countries in the world, including the Republic of Belarus, are parties to these international treaties. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols oblige Belarus to include the study of international humanitarian law in the national education system. The course "Exploring Humanitarian Law" helps students to master the fundamentals of knowledge in the field of international humanitarian law, to form their readiness to firmly adhere to the principles and norms of international humanitarian law, to protect and develop them in the sphere of their future professional activities. -0-

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