One of the most important steps for young people in Norway is the confirmation, either through church or through any of the various group that offers confirmation. In any case the objective is the same, to educate teenagers in human values, ethics, morals, or different topics related to personal growth. The candidates for the confirmation will meet new friends, have new experiences and of course, follow the tradition and celebrate with family and friends the day of the confirmation.

The Red Cross cannot ignore these areas of education and training for the youth and that is why we join in with the educational process for the "Rules of War" program from Red Cross Youth.

In recent years, Nordland Red Cross has had an agreement with "Human Etisk Forbund”. We come in, and train young people in various topics related to our work. This years theme was IHL and Rules of War and with this topic we had trained over 100 teens in 2009. These young people are divided into groups of no more than 15 people. This is done in the classrooms of “Høgskolan i Bodø”, involving young people from different schools who are preparing for their confirmation.

Sandra Milena Morales Gallego, Youth Delegate from Colombian Red Cross, interacting with young people about IHL.

The idea is to lecture them about the importance of rules of war, as well as let them know the basics in terms of IHL, such as the importance of the distinction in armed conflict, to protect the civilian population, and to insure that they get a dignified treatment.

One of the greatest challenges for this program is the language, as we must give the lecture in English. In general, young people in Norway are very good in English, but young people intend to feel a bit insecure when speaking English. Most important is to break the ice, crossing the wall to reach the required confidence to speak in English. Some cases are easier than others, but in the end we succeed and then everything get’s easier. Many of the youngsters are very active.

The methods used for the dissemination of international humanitarian law is the same as that used with the IHL-Schools project, which uses a tool called "Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) or the Norwegian version called "Når Krigen Raser”. The teaching methods used in EHL require students to play an active role in the process of learning. This enables them to develop a practical humanitarian perspective and to understand a subject as seemingly dry, and complex, as IHL.