International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission

The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) is an international body that is available to perform investigations of possible breaches of international humanitarian law. The Commission may investigate matters to determine what has happened, but does not pass judgment on issues it raises.

History
IHFFC was established in 1991 and has its basis in the First Optional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, agreed in 1977.

Operation
The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs carries out the secretariat functions. IHFFC is headquartered in Bern. 76 states have joined the body.

The organization has the status of a permanent observer in the UN General Assembly.

Activations
On 7 October 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières called for activating the commission, to investigate the deadly U.S. bombing of MSF's hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. MSF says it does not trust internal military inquiries into the bombing that killed 42 people, which it considers a war crime. USA and Afghanistan are not among the 76 signatories of the IHFFC.

In 2016, Médecins Sans Frontières again called for the Commission activation, after the bombing of an MSF hospital in Yemen.

The commission received its fist mission in 2017, from the OSCE, to investigate the death of an OSCE ambulance driver in Ukraine. It concluded that it was caused by an anti-tank mine and “[g]iven the fact that - as was commonly known - the road was frequently used by civilian traffic, any recent laying of anti-vehicle mines constitutes a violation of IHL because of the predictable indiscriminate effect”.

Russia withdrew from the commission's remit in 2019.

Members of the Commission
The Commission consists of fifteen experts. On 20 February 2017 they were: