scholarly journals Promoting Compliance with the Rules Regulating Humanitarian Relief Operations in Armed Conflict: Some Challenges

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dapo Akande ◽  
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Relief Operations

In recent years, the increasingly frequent and, in certain contexts, extremely severe impediments to the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in need have focused attention on how to enhance compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) that regulate humanitarian relief operations. Efforts to hold accountable parties to armed conflict and persons responsible for unlawfully impeding humanitarian relief operations face the challenge that the underlying rules give parties latitude in how to implement the central obligation to allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian supplies, equipment and personnel. This article outlines the rules of IHL regulating humanitarian relief operations and highlights the difficulties, in the majority of situations, of determining whether they have been violated. It then presents current endeavours to promote accountability. It concludes with some reflections on whether the threat of accountability is the most effective way of enhancing compliance with this area of IHL, at least while efforts are under way to negotiate access.

14 Humanitarian Relief Operations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massingham Eve ◽  
Thynne Kelisiana
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Armed Group ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Main Tenet ◽  
Relief Operations

This chapter examines humanitarian relief operations in armed conflict. The main tenet of international humanitarian law (IHL) is that human suffering should be limited, even in an environment where causing death and injury is, to a certain extent, legitimate. In amongst the violence and death that characterizes armed conflict in all its forms, humanitarian relief operations seek to assuage the suffering by providing protection and assistance to persons who are affected by the armed conflict. Humanitarian relief actors not only promote IHL to the parties to a conflict, but they also provide protection and assistance to victims of a conflict. States have the primary responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to their citizens, to provide them with protection, and to respect and ensure respect for IHL. Non-state armed groups engaged in armed conflict also have a responsibility to uphold IHL and provide assistance to people in the territory which they control. However, where the state or armed group is not able to provide such assistance, humanitarian relief actors and organizations can fill the gap. Therefore, like combatants, civilians, and other protected persons, humanitarian relief personnel have specific protections, obligations, and requirements under IHL.

Territorial Control by Armed Groups and the Regulation of Access to Humanitarian Assistance

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Gal
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Relief Operations

Humanitarian assistance is essential for the survival of the civilian population and peoplehors de combatin the theatre of war. Its regulation under the laws of armed conflict tries to achieve a balance between humanitarian goals and state sovereignty. This balance, reflected in the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, is not as relevant to contemporary armed conflicts, most of which involve non-state armed groups. Even those provisions relating to humanitarian assistance in conflicts involving non-state armed groups fail to address properly the key features of these groups, and especially their territorial aspect. This article proposes a different approach, which takes into consideration and gives weight to the control exercised by non-state armed groups over a given territory. Accordingly, it is suggested that provisions regulating humanitarian relief operations in occupied territories should apply to territories controlled by armed groups. This approach views international humanitarian law first and foremost as an effective, realistic and practical branch of law. Moreover, it has tremendous humanitarian advantages and reflects the aims and purposes of the law, while considering the factual framework of these conflicts.

Part II Predominant Security Challenges and International Law, Economic and Resource Security, Ch.28 Humanitarian Relief in Situations of Armed Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillard Emanuela-Chiara ◽  
Weizmann Nathalie
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Security ◽  
Human Security ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Relief Operations

This chapter addresses humanitarian relief in situations of armed conflict. In many modern wars, more civilian deaths and suffering occur as a result of humanitarian crises prompted or exacerbated by the conflicts than from actual hostilities. International humanitarian law (IHL) includes an important body of rules aimed at ensuring that the basic needs of civilians caught up in conflict are met. While these protections can be considered as a manifestation of the ‘freedom from want’ dimension of human security, it is essential to bear in mind that the relevant rules of IHL are well established, binding on States and, in case of non-international armed conflict, also organized armed groups. The chapter outlines the rules of IHL regulating collective humanitarian relief operations, with a particular focus on how they balance the dictates of belligerents’ security interests and civilians’ ‘human security’ needs and entitlements. It then considers one particular way in which a pressing national and international security objective—countering terrorism—interacts with and adversely impacts the capacity of humanitarian actors to operate in a principled manner, and thus impairs the human security of populations in need.

Conflict-induced Food Insecurity and the War Crime of Starvation of Civilians as a Method of Warfare

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-779
Author(s):  
Dapo Akande ◽  
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
General Rules ◽  
Relief Operations ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality

Abstract This article examines the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) relevant to avoiding or minimizing conflict-induced food insecurity. It is important to consider these rules in order to appreciate the range of protections to which civilians are entitled. Understanding these rules is also essential for interpreting the relevant provisions of international criminal law, including, most notably, the war crime of starvation of the civilian population. After providing a brief outline of the general rules of IHL respect of which can reduce the risk of food insecurity, the article focuses on two sets of rules of direct relevance to food insecurity: the prohibition of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the rules regulating humanitarian relief operation. With regard to the former, the article considers whether, under IHL, the prohibition requires that the party that has engaged in the conduct must act with the purpose of causing starvation. It is argued that while the general prohibition of starvation in IHL requires such purpose, there are other, more specific, rules of IHL directed at reducing food insecurity which do not require such purpose. Consideration is also given to the application of the principle of proportionality to measures which have the effect of causing starvation. While most of this article focuses on IHL, it also provides some reflections on the interplay between the rules of IHL relating to humanitarian relief operations and the war crime of starvation in the International Criminal Court’s Statute. Moving briefly away from IHL, the article also highlights a normative tension that can impede humanitarian action and therefore exacerbate food insecurity.

International Humanitarian Law and Blockade

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Drew
Keyword(s):  
Customary Law ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Additional Protocol ◽  
Maritime Traffic ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Relief Operations

This chapter is a study of how blockade law relates to international humanitarian law, particularly that set out in Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Noting that under the customary law of blockade all incoming and outgoing maritime traffic is prohibited, an assessment is made on whether or not the customary requirement has been displaced by the humanitarian provisions of AP1. Focusing on the wording of article 49(3), it is shown that for a number of states, the adoption of AP1 did not change the customary law, while for some others it did. As a result of this discrepancy it is posited that in spite of recent attempts to create such an obligation through soft law approaches, there is no customary law that requires humanitarian relief operations during blockade blockades.

The Involvement of the Security Council in Maintaining International Humanitarian Law

1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th.A. van Baarda
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The Other ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The One

In this article the author discusses the growing involvement of the Security Council in humanitarian protection and assistance in armed conflict. Given the fact that the Security Council is apolitical body par excellence, its involvement in the humanitarian relief effort may prejudice the neutrality and independence of the latter. He finds himself in agreement with the ICRC, which has proposed that the UN should make a clear distinction between encouraging respect for humanitarian law on the one hand, and the effort to maintain international peace and security on the other.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Access in conditions Armed Conflict: The International Legal Aspect

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-30
Author(s):  
Marina Rylskaya
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Current System ◽  
Legal Aspect ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Peace And Security

The article reveals a number of legal issues related to humanitarian assistance; some of them are being regulated from the point of view of International Humanitarian Law. It is also stressed that the current system of international relations is not always capable of maintaining peace and security, which leads to the shift of the international community's efforts from the level of forceful resolution of conflicts to the format of humanitarian Cooperation.

Humanitarian action: A delicate balancing act

1987 ◽  
Vol 27 (260) ◽  
pp. 485-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Treaty Law ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
The Right

Increasingly a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appear to be demanding the right to provide humanitarian assistance and at the same time the right to denounce any violations of human rights. Whereas these are fine and understandable aspirations, they do not coincide with accepted principles of relief law and practice. This short article will explore certain aspects of this subject, primarily in relation to the treaty law applicable to circumstances of armed conflict and in occupied territories (International Humanitarian Law).

scholarly journals THE RIGHT TO THE PROTECTION OF VICTIMS OF ARMED CONFLICT: INFORMATION FOR THOUGHT

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
Марина Рыльская ◽  
Marina Ryl'skaya
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Conflict Information ◽  
The Right

the article describes the concept of humanitarian assistance in the interpretation of international humanitarian law on the protection of civilian victims in armed conflicts.

Arms transfers, humanitarian assistance and international humanitarian law

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (325) ◽  
pp. 685-691
Author(s):  
Peter Herby
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Small Arms ◽  
Arms Transfers ◽  
The World ◽  
War Victims

The International Committee of the Red Cross has witnessed in its work for war victims throughout the world the increasingly devastating effects for civilian populations of the proliferation of weapons, particularly small arms. The difficulties of providing humanitarian assistance in an environment where arms have become widely available to many segments of society are well known to most humanitarian relief agencies today. However, until recently the relationships between the availability of weapons, the worsening situation of civilians during and after conflict and the challenges of providing humanitarian assistance have not been addressed directly.

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