International Humanitarian Law

Introduction

The PRCS Information and Dissemination unit was established in 1995 with the support of the international committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Its overall goal is to disseminate humanitarian values and improve the PRCS profile on both local and international levels. The unit works continuously with PRCS departments and branches in order to effectively spread the International Movement’s fundamental principles and the PRCS mission and services. Many tools and activities have been developed to help in the dissemination process such as 8th of May activities, public awareness campaigns, various publications and the PRCS website (www.palestinercs.org).

Later in 2002, the information and dissemination unit was integrated into a newly created Information, Dissemination and IHL Department with the continuous support of the ICRC and the Danish RC for the IHL programme. After a joint DRC & ICRC assessment in November 2006, the DRC funding to the ICRCPRCS through a delegated project mechanism terminated at the end of 2006. Since then, the ICRC has been supporting this programme under the vision of contributing to the development of the activities, tools, capacities and methodology of PRCS in this sector.

In 2009, a joint internal audit of PRCS dissemination sector began with the aim of analyzing the current dissemination activities. At the same time and after the Israeli War on the Gaza Strip, a joint lessons learned exercise was conducted to evaluate many areas including the PRCS public communication. As a result, recommendations have been identified in the area of Dissemination and Public Communication that are taken into consideration by the PRCS in its planning for the next year.