Brasília, February 13, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The International Humanitarian Rights Commission was inaugurated yesterday (12) morning in the Itamaraty Palace. The commission will be responsible for making Brazilians aware of how nations should be treated in situations of armed conflict. There is currently little instruction on the Laws of War in schools; what is taught is limited in large part to the Army, where soldiers who make up international peace forces receive training from the International Red Cross Committee before departing on their missions.

"Knowledge about the correct way to deal with unarmed populations, refugees, and prisoners is extremely important for the efforts of peace forces to be efficient," explained Gérard Peytrignet, the Red Cross Committee's regional delegate to the Southern Cone.

Brazil is one of the last countries in South America to install a specific commission on compliance with the laws of war. For the Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, the commission, in addition to raising awareness of what constitutes war abuses, will play an important role in the treatment of refugees accepted by Brazil. There are currently three thousand of them in the country. "We have the desire and disposition to receive refugees, but it is important to normalize the flow and prevent them from becoming marginal members of the population," he said. (DAS)