scholarly journals Bodies against War: Voluntary Human Shielding as a Practice of Resistance

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 299-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Banu Bargu
Keyword(s):  
Rome Statute ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Asymmetric Conflict ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The Hague Convention

International humanitarian law strictly prohibits the use of human shields and, through a well-known genealogy of supranational efforts that passes through the Hague Convention IV (1907), the Geneva Conventions III and IV (1949), the Additional Protocol I (1977), and, more recently, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), has sought to prevent this practice. However, both states and nonstate belligerents have deployed human shields in order to gain military advantages—to ward off attacks by placing civilians close to military targets or hiding military targets within areas inhabited by civilians. This is especially the case in asymmetric conflict, where the weaker party can use human shields to protect fighters, weapons, strategic sites, and critical infrastructures, and to delay, deter, and even discourage attackers from direct engagement that might lead to a high number of civilian casualties. On the other hand, the attacking party can allege that the “other” party is using civilians as human shields. Even in the absence of actual evidence, such an allegation has come to constitute a convenient excuse for attackers to justify civilian casualties and to relegate the responsibility for their deaths to the party that endangered them in the first place. In asymmetric conflict, therefore, parties are incentivized to resort to a politics of human shielding.

The Humanization of Humanitarian Law

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Land Mines ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The Hague Convention ◽  
The Impact

The centennial of the Hague Convention (No. II; No. IV in the 1907 version) on the Laws and Customs of War on Land and the fiftieth anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War of August 12, 1949, present an opportunity to reflect on the direction in which the law of war, or international humanitarian law, has been evolving. This essay focuses on the humanization of that law, a process driven to a large extent by human rights and the principles of humanity. As the subject is vast, major issues must inevitably be left out of my discussion, including the impact of the prohibitions on unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate warfare on the regulation of weapons, the proscription of antipersonnel land mines and blinding laser weapons, and the progression of international humanitarian law from largely protecting noncombatants to protecting combatants as well.

12 Protection of the Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kleffner Jann K ◽  
von Heinegg Wolff Heintschel
Keyword(s):  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Hague Convention

This chapter studies the protection of the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked. The definition of persons protected under the various treaties for the protection of the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked evolved constantly from the adoption of the 1864 Geneva Convention, which only applied to ‘combatants’. The 1906 Geneva Convention subsequently broadened the scope of application to add ‘other persons officially attached to the armed forces’, and the 1929 Geneva Convention similarly referred to ‘officers and soldiers and other persons officially attached to the armed forces’. As far as warfare at sea was concerned, the Hague Convention (III) of 1899 applied to ‘sailors and soldiers who are taken on board’, while the 1907 Hague Convention (X) added to this definition ‘other persons officially attached to fleets or armies’ in analogy to the 1906 Geneva Convention. The chapter then looks at the protection of medical personnel and the rules of international humanitarian law on the dead and missing persons. It also details the development which has led to the adoption of a new protective emblem: the Red Crystal.

Implementation of War Crimes in Latin America: An Assessment of the Impact of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473
Author(s):  
Salvador Herencia Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Additional Protocol ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe implementation of the Rome Statute in Latin America continues to face structural gaps caused by a lack of comprehensive implementation of all the elements of the treaty. In the case of war crimes legislation, only seven countries have adopted specific regulations implementing Article 8 of the Rome Statute or grave violations of international humanitarian law. The main problem persists in the fact that there has not been a significant implementation of Additional Protocol 1 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions as a complement to Article 8 of the Rome Statute. Also, regulation has focused on persons and property, leaving the criminalization of means and methods of warfare as well as the use of certain weapons behind.

scholarly journals The Universality of IHL – Surmounting the Last Bastion of the Pacific

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Kelisiana Thynne
Keyword(s):  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Special Edition ◽  
60Th Anniversary ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Pacific

In a special edition of the VUWLR on the 60th anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, it is timely to reflect on the achievements that have come about in the Pacific region, and why this is a cause for celebration. Nonetheless, there are other major international humanitarian law (IHL) instruments developed in the last 60 years which are yet to achieve universal ratification. In the Pacific, in particular, it is often difficult to demonstrate how IHL is relevant. This article addresses the challenges that the Pacific region poses in terms of IHL ratification and discusses how IHL instruments are indeed pertinent to the Pacific context, focusing on the three Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It concludes that in the Pacific these challenges should be seen as opportunities to address historical and current problems associated with war and that, by the next major anniversary, the Pacific might be, if not leading the way, at least not lagging behind.

Sources of International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaël van Steenberghe
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Impact

This chapter analyses the specific features which characterize the sources of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL). It first examines those which are claimed to characterize IHL and ICL sources in relation to the secondary norms regulating the classical sources of international law. The chapter then looks at the specific features of some IHL and ICL sources in relation to the others of the same field. Attention is given particularly to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the impact of its features on other ICL sources, as well as to the commitments made by armed groups, whose characteristics make them difficult to classify under any of the classical sources of international law. In general, this chapter shows how all those specific features derive from the specific fundamental principles and evolving concerns of these two fields of international law.

Humanitarian Policy and Operational Activities: The ICRC's responsibilities in connection with the Middle East conflict

1991 ◽  
Vol 31 (281) ◽  
pp. 211-214
Author(s):  
Yves Sandoz
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Middle East Conflict ◽  
Operational Activities

In its January-February 1991 issue, the Review informed its readers of the successive representations made by the ICRC from the outbreak of the Middle East conflict both to the States party to the conflict and to the other States to remind them of their obligations under the Geneva Conventions. In particular, the ICRC sent a note verbale on 14 December 1990 to the 164 States party to the Conventions, together with a Memorandum on the applicability of international humanitarian law, and launched appeals to the belligerent States on 17 January and 1 and 24 February 1991.

War Crimes in International Versus Non-International Armed Conflicts: "New Wine in Old Wineskins"?

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 319-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauthier de Beco
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Trial Chamber ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law

AbstractThis note discusses the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts in the prosecution of war crimes before the International Criminal Court. It analyses the international humanitarian law applicable to both kinds of conflict, and the way in which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia succeeded in prosecuting war crimes committed in non-international armed conflicts. It also studies the two war crimes regimes provided for in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The note then examines how Pre-Trial Chamber I dealt with this issue in its Decision on the confirmation of charges against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and the problems it faced in doing so. It concludes with a plea for the abolition of the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts with respect to war crimes in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions: a quest for universality

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (258) ◽  
pp. 243-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelio Sommaruga
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Geneva Conventions

Ten years ago, on 8 June 1977, the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts adopted two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, one relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts and the other to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts.

scholarly journals Su kariavimo priemonėmis susiję karo nusikaltimai: tarptautinės humanitarinės teisės ir tarptautinės baudžiamosios teisės santykio problemos

Teisė ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 111-125
Author(s):  
Dovydas Špokauskas
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama, ar Tarptautinio baudžiamojo teismo Romos statuto nuostatos visiškai pertei­kia kariavimo priemonių pasirinkimą reglamentuojančias tarptautinės humanitarinės teisės sutartines ir paprotines nuostatas. The analysis assesses whether the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court do not fully reflect the customary and treaty norms of international humanitarian law related to the choice of means of warfare.

Trying Violations of Human Rights in International Criminal Tribunals

2021 ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Geneva Conventions

This chapter details the ways in which international criminal tribunals such as the ICTY have contributed to human rights law and protections. In construing the material elements of crimes under international humanitarian law, international criminal tribunals have had recourse to human rights law and jurisprudence, thereby strengthening human rights law and opening new avenues for its penal enforcement. The beginnings of these developments can be traced, first, to the drafting of crimes against humanity clauses in the Nuremberg Charter and, second, to the drafting of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The tribunals have also made immense contributions to strengthening the proscriptions of rape as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts. With respect to persecution, the ICTY held that persecution is the gross or blatant denial, on discriminatory grounds, of a fundamental right, laid down in international customary or treaty law, reaching the same level of gravity as the other acts prohibited as crimes against humanity.

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