On Agust 28, the Colombian Army’s Education and Doctrine Command (CEDOC, in Spanish) launched the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Virtual Certificate. The120-hour course, which was initially designed for a classroom setting, was developed virtually by the Army due to the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 700 students from the Military Education Center (CEMIL, in Spanish) will take part in this course in the first phase. The course will be provided to the entire Army in 2021, the institution said in a press release.
“What is striking here is the use of virtual resources to create a massive impact. We could never teach 250,000 people at the same time,” Brigadier General Alberto Rodríguez Sánchez, CEDOC commander, told Diálogo. “This will enable the soldier, the officer, the noncommissioned officer, no matter where they may be, […] to carry out and really continue to strengthen their knowledge about human rights and IHL.”
The course is divided into three modules that cover topics such as the history of human rights, national and international organizations devoted to protecting human rights, the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, and applicable rules in non-international armed conflicts. Other important topics include rules for the use of force and the importance of Operational Law.
“The constant quest is for our men to always act within the law and norms, as our regulations say, as taught by military programs, as we emphasize to students in each academic program we conduct on this subject,” Brig. Gen. Rodríguez concluded.