On May 27, 2025, the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazISS) hosted a meeting with a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an independent humanitarian organization providing help and protection to victims of armed conflicts. The delegation included Biljana Milosevic, Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for Central Asia, and Serik Sagymbayev, Head of the ICRC Mission in Kazakhstan.
The ICRC representatives outlined the main areas of the organization’s activities across the region. In Kazakhstan, the key focus of the ICRC is supporting the integration of international humanitarian law (IHL) norms into national legislation and promoting awareness of these norms. Additionally, the ICRC collaborates with the Kazakhstan Red Crescent on emergency preparedness issues.
One of the discussion topics was the challenges faced by ICRC staff working in armed conflict zones in the Middle East and other regions worldwide. In this context, the importance of the global initiative to strengthen political commitment to IHL was emphasized. This initiative was launched by the ICRC in September last year with support from Kazakhstan, Brazil, Jordan, China, France, and South Africa.
The main goal of the initiative is to make compliance with IHL a political priority at the global, regional, and national levels. As part of the initiative, recommendations are being developed to ensure universal, systematic, and consistent observance of IHL norms during armed conflicts.
The participants also discussed prospects for cooperation between KazISS and the ICRC Regional Delegation, including organizing joint events involving experts from Central Asian countries. Askar Nursha, Deputy Director of KazISS, noted that such collaboration will contribute to more effective coordination of efforts within the framework of regional partnership with the ICRC.
