Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law — Alike yet Distinct

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (293) ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Meurant
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Second World

International humanitarian law and human rights law share a common goal, namely to protect the individual and to ensure respect for human dignity. Yet these two branches of international public law each have their own characteristics and origins and have evolved in different ways.Nevertheless, the troubled aftermath of the Second World War, the unchecked rise of violence and poverty in recent decades and the resulting need for improved protection of the ever-growing number of victims of violations of fundamental human rights have all contributed not only to the evolution of the two branches of law but also to their convergence, like “two poor crutches on which disarmed victims can lean simultaneously”, to quote an expressive image by Karel Vasak. This expert went so far as to estimate in 1984 that “the convergence of the two branches has led to an overlapping both on paper and, increasingly, in practice as well”.

International criminal jurisdiction, international humanitarian law and humanitarian action

1997 ◽  
Vol 37 (321) ◽  
pp. 623-634
Author(s):  
Jacques Stroun
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Second World

Shortly after the Second World War the community of States, still shocked by the explosion of violence that had torn the world apart for more than five years, ratified an updated version of the Geneva Conventions in the hope of acquiring a sound legal instrument which would preserve human dignity even in times of war. They undertook to respect the fundamental rights of the individual in armed conflicts, whether international or otherwise, and to limit the use of force to what was strictly necessary to place an enemy hors de combat. Their resolve found confirmation in the two Additional Protocols of 1977.

Appointment

1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (102) ◽  
pp. 491-491 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
East European ◽  
Middle East Countries ◽  
Wide Experience ◽  
Second World

Mr. Raymond Courvoisier has since 1 August 1969 taken over the appointment of special assistant to the President of the International Committee, thus bringing it his wide experience in the field of international humanitarian law. It should, in fact, be recalled that from 1936 to 1945 he undertook a large number of missions in ICRC service as delegate in Spain, Turkey, in East European and Middle East countries. Furthermore, he was in charge of a section in the Central Prisoners of War Agency in Geneva during the Second World War.

scholarly journals THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW APPLICABLE IN THE NEW TYPES OF ARMED CONFLICTS

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 184-193
Author(s):  
Nicolae David Ungureanu
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Second World

The international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts has evolved continuously since antiquity until today, its doctrinal writings pointing out during the modern period the influence that the progress of the concepts and the practices of war has had on the development of the normative conventions, especially the first and second world war, resulting in texts that are applicable even today.

Building a Case against the War Criminals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Aszkielowicz
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Second World War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

Long before the Second World War ended, the Allies were planning to prosecute Axis war criminals, including both those in positions of leadership and the perpetrators of individual crimes. There was no standing war crimes court at the end of the Second World War, however, and the post-war trials were a watershed in international law. For the trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo, Allied planners drew on the development of international humanitarian law and international agreements signed by the combatants over the decades preceding the war. The vast majority of war criminals who were prosecuted did not face the court at Nuremberg or Tokyo: they appeared before national military tribunals which were conducted according to each prosecuting country’s war crimes law. The Australian War Crimes Act passed through the parliament in October 1945, shortly before trials began.

14 Human Rights in Armed Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kleffner Jann K
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Relationship ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

This chapter explains the application of human rights in armed conflicts. International humanitarian law has much in common with the law of human rights, since both bodies of rules are concerned with the protection of the individual. Nevertheless, there are important differences between them. Human rights law is designed to operate primarily in normal peacetime conditions, and governs the vertical legal relationship between a state and its citizens and other persons subject to its jurisdiction. Human rights law applies primarily within the territory of the state that is subject to the human rights obligation in question. International humanitarian law, by contrast, is specifically designed to regulate situations of armed conflict. These differences between human rights law and international humanitarian law have led some to argue that human rights law is only intended to be applicable in time of peace. However, it is now generally accepted that human rights continue to apply during armed conflict. Hence, international humanitarian law and human rights law can apply simultaneously in situations of armed conflict.

18. The Protection of Human Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 404-426
Author(s):  
Paola Gaeta ◽  
Jorge E. Viñuales ◽  
Salvatore Zappalà
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
International Level ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Treat All ◽  
Second World

This chapter surveys the process of emergence of human rights law in the post-1945 era, focusing on the major milestones, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two 1966 International Covenants, and the establishment of several regional mechanisms in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. It emphasizes the tension between traditional international law and the development of human rights as a ground-breaking doctrine after the Second World War. In essence the human rights doctrines force States to give account of how they treat all individuals, including their nationals; this make States accountable for how they administer justice, run prisons, and so on. Potentially, it can subvert their domestic orders and requires them to adhere to minimum standards agreed at international level. As a further consequence, human rights doctrines have altered the traditional configuration of the international community as driven only by the interests of States.

Tracing the Relational Internationalist Perspective in Europe After the Second World War

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxana Banu
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Analytical Point ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Second World ◽  
Point Of Reference

This chapter describes the internationalist thinking in private international law after the Second World War and the extent to which internationalist scholars of this period took the individual or the state as the analytical point of reference. It shows how, around the middle of the twentieth century, Henri Batiffol in France and Gerhard Kegel in Germany reawakened an interest in theoretical discussions around the justice dimensions of private international law, while also attempting to repurpose and validate private international law methodology and techniques. Furthermore, this chapter provides an in-depth reading of English private international law scholarship after the Second World War in order to show how English scholars tried to reconstruct private international law theories focused on vested rights as human rights theories.

scholarly journals Are Universal Human Rights Universal?

Politeja ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2(71)) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Ildus Yarulin ◽  
Evgeny Pozdnyakov
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Individual ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
Second World

One of the issues constantly discussed in the context of human rights is their assessment as universal or relative. International human rights norms are universal, which corresponds to the nature of human rights. The process of universalization of human rights began after the second world war with the creation of the United Nations, whose Charter declared its determination to reaffirm faith in the fundamental rights of the individual, in the equality of men and women and in the equality of nations large and small. These intentions of the organization were confirmed by the adoption of universal documents: the International Bill of Human Rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenants on Human Rights, opened for signature on December 16, 1966, and other acts. However, the problem lies in the fact that human rights recognized at the international level as universal and enshrined in international instruments, which must be respected by all and everywhere, lose the signs and qualities of universality under the influence of various socio-cultural, national traditions and customs, religious and other factors, and acquire the meaning or status of relative ones.

scholarly journals EMBRACING INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE IN NAVIGATING THE DUAL QUALITY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277
Author(s):  
Farid Sufian Shuaib
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World Population ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
World War ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
Second World

International human rights law, as with the setting up of the United Nations at the end of the Second World War, promises in the dignity and worth of the human person of nations large and small.  International human rights law supposes to save the world population from the scourge of war, despots and other miseries.  The international legal order after the end of the Second World War also promises equal sovereignty where all states are equal under international law in spite of inequality of population size, resources and military might.  International human rights law thus applies to all states, to protect all populations. International human rights law has been used to liberate colonies and to protect people from oppression. The universal nature of international human rights law means that it applies to all nations large and small. However, the very fact that it is universal also is troublesome when in its application, the Eurocentric understanding of human rights is imposed on all.  This paper looks both at the acceptance of Malaysia of international human rights law and her schemes in determining the place for universalism in the application of the law.

scholarly journals Sexual violence in armed conflicts: A violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law

2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (894) ◽  
pp. 503-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Gaggioli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
The Individual

AbstractSexual violence is prevalent in contemporary armed conflicts. International humanitarian law and human rights law absolutely prohibit all forms of sexual violence at all times and against anyone; international criminal law moreover provides for the individual criminal responsibility of sexual crimes' perpetrators. These three bodies of law importantly reinforce each other in this field. The discrepancy between the facts on the ground and the law is a matter of concern that cannot be explained by potential legal gaps or uncertainties. What is needed is to find new ways of improving implementation for existing laws at the domestic and international levels.

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