Global violence is a universal scourge which threatens the lives of an increasing number of people around the world. For each individual who dies and suffers as a result of an armed conflict, many more are the victims of a broad range of other patterns of political and moral collective violence. Although, since the end of the Cold War, the overall improvement of the international security scenario has led to a substantive decline in battlefield deaths, violence continues, however, to dramatically affect the existence of millions of people in multiple forms: armed conflicts, political oppression, economic and social exploitation, forced displacement of populations, environmental destruction, human rights abuses, organised crime, ethnic cleansing, terrorism. The aim of the meeting, in the year of the 40th anniversary of the Institute, was to promote a new awareness of global violence paradigms and of the inextricable relationship existing between its different expressions through informal debate and open discussion, in the constructive spirit which is internationally recognised as the “spirit of Sanremo”. The Round Table gathered together more than 300 participants from the different regions of the world including military experts, academics and representatives of governments, international organizations, IHL practitioners and NGOs which spent two to discuss IHL related detention key issues.