scholarly journals Armed escorts to humanitarian convoys: An unexplored framework under international humanitarian law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Annabel Bassil
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Objective ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality

Abstract The use of armed escorts to humanitarian convoys delivering humanitarian assistance potentially increases the targeting of these convoys, yet so far this use has not been examined from the perspective of international humanitarian law (IHL). This article attempts to determine whether the resort to armed escorts is in line with the principle of passive precautions under IHL, how the principle of proportionality could apply in cases of attack against the escort, and whether the convoy turns into a military objective when escorted. Finally, the article tackles the limitations of such a framework in order to define the situations it covers.

scholarly journals International law protecting the environment during armed conflict: gaps and opportunities

2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (879) ◽  
pp. 569-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bothe ◽  
Carl Bruch ◽  
Jordan Diamond ◽  
David Jensen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThere are three key deficiencies in the existing body of international humanitarian law (IHL) relating to protection of the environment during armed conflict. First, the definition of impermissible environmental damage is both too restrictive and unclear; second, there are legal uncertainties regarding the protection of elements of the environment as civilian objects; and third, the application of the principle of proportionality where harm to the environment constitutes ‘collateral damage’ is also problematic. These gaps present specific opportunities for clarifying and developing the existing framework. One approach to addressing some of the inadequacies of IHL could be application of international environmental law during armed conflict. The detailed norms, standards, approaches, and mechanisms found in international environmental law might also help to clarify and extend basic principles of IHL to prevent, address, or assess liability for environmental damage incurred during armed conflict.

scholarly journals Military Objectives 2.0: The Case for Interpreting Computer Data as Objects under International Humanitarian Law

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kubo Mačák
Keyword(s):  
Customary Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Cyber Warfare ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Computer Data ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Military Objective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Teleological Interpretation

This article presents the case for a progressive interpretation of the notion of military objectives in international humanitarian law (IHL), bringing computer data within the scope of this concept. The advent of cyber military operations has presented a dilemma as to the proper understanding of data in IHL. The emerging orthodoxy, represented by the 2013Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, advances the argument that the intangible nature of data renders it ineligible to be an object for the purposes of the rules on targeting in IHL. This article, on the contrary, argues that because of its susceptibility to alteration and destruction, the better view is that data is an object within the meaning of this term under IHL and thus it may qualify as a military objective. The article supports this conclusion by means of a textual, systematic and teleological interpretation of the definition of military objectives found in treaty and customary law. The upshot of the analysis presented here is that data that does not meet the criteria for qualification as a military objective must be considered a civilian object, with profound implications for the protection of civilian datasets in times of armed conflict.

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.

TARGETING NARCOINSURGENTS IN AFGHANISTAN: THE LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 301-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael N. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Drug Trafficker ◽  
Joint Force ◽  
Military Objective ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
International Security Assistance Force

AbstractIn October 2008, upon the request of the Afghan government, NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Budapest agreed that ‘ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency, in the context of counternarcotics, subject to the authorization of respective nations’. In explaining the scope of the contemplated actions, NATO officials noted that drug producers and traffickers who aided the ongoing insurgency could now be attacked. NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), US General Bantz Craddock, justified the policy on the ground that the Taliban reaped over $100 million annually from the drug trade. US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates likewise defended the decision as sound strategy.It soon became clear that other key figures were less enamoured with the new approach, or the subsequent guidance issued to effectuate it. On 5 January 2009, Craddock instructed General Egon Ramms, the German Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, which overseas NATO operations in Afghanistan, ‘to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan’. The threshold for engagement seemed to require little connection to the insurgency. According to SACEUR's guidance, it was ‘no longer necessary to produce intelligence or other evidence that each particular drug trafficker or narcotics facility in Afghanistan meets the criteria of being a military objective’ because the alliance ‘has decided that (drug traffickers and narcotics facilities) are inextricably linked to the Opposing Military Forces, and thus may be attacked’.

INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND COUNTER-TERRORISM: FUNDAMENTAL VALUES, CONFLICTING OBLIGATIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-78
Author(s):  
David McKeever
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Fundamental Values

AbstractThe interaction of international counter-terrorism laws with IHL is an area of renewed focus, amid widespread concern that the former are being (mis)applied to criminalise the provision of humanitarian assistance envisaged under the latter. The Security Council has begun to consider this issue in resolutions adopted in March and July 2019, but difficult questions of law and fact remain. These questions have significant practical consequences—for humanitarian agencies and those they seek to assist, as well as for States that must weigh different, and possibly conflicting, legal obligations. Much of the analysis to date and the solutions proposed, pay insufficient attention to the specifics of each legal regime.

Do Soldiers' Lives Matter? A View from Proportionality

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler ◽  
Shai Otzari
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Military Operation ◽  
Legal Structure ◽  
A Value ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality

A military operation is about to take place during an ongoing international armed conflict; it can be carried out either by aerial attack, which is expected to cause the deaths of enemy civilians, or by using ground troops, which is expected to cause the deaths of fewer enemy civilians but is expected to result in more deaths of compatriot soldiers. Does the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law impose a duty on an attacker to expose its soldiers to life-threatening risks in order to minimise or avert risks of incidental damage to enemy civilians? If such a duty exists, is it absolute or qualified? And if it is a qualified duty, what considerations may be taken into account in determining its character and scope?This article presents an analytic framework under the current international humanitarian law (IHL) legal structure, following a proportionality analysis. The proposed framework identifies five main positions for addressing the above queries. The five positions are arranged along two ‘axes’: a value ‘axis’, which identifies the value assigned to the lives of compatriot soldiers in relation to lives of enemy civilians; and a justification ‘axis’, which outlines the justificatory bases for assigning certain values to lives of compatriot soldiers and enemy civilians: intrinsic, instrumental or a combination thereof. The article critically assesses these positions, and favours a position which attributes a value to compatriot soldiers' lives, premised on a justificatory basis which marries intrinsic considerations with circumscribed instrumental considerations, avoiding the indeterminacy and normative questionability entailed by more expansive instrumental considerations.

scholarly journals Assistance to the victims of armed conflicts

1988 ◽  
Vol 28 (267) ◽  
pp. 551-554
Author(s):  
Frits Kalshoven
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Keynote Speech ◽  
Save The Children ◽  
The University

From 22 to 24 June 1988, an international conference was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on “Humanitarian Assistance in Armed Conflict”. It was organized by the University of Leiden's Red Cross Chair of International Humanitarian Law, together with the National Red Cross Societies of Belgium (Flemish Community) and The Netherlands.The conference, which was attended by some 180 participants (with Her Royal Highness, Princess Margriet of The Netherlands, as the most distinguished among them) was opened by the Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation, Mr. Pieter Bukman. Professor René Jean Dupuy, professor of International Law at the College de France, Paris, gave the keynote speech at the opening session. Speakers during the three working sessions of the conference included representatives of the ICRC, the League, UNHCR, Médecins sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde, CEBEMO (the Dutch Catholic Organization for Joint Financing of Development Programmes), Save the Children Fund, Oxfam UK, and the academic world.

Proportionality in International Humanitarian Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amichai Cohen ◽  
David Zlotogorski
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
State Actor ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
Almost All

The principle of proportionality is one of the cornerstones of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Almost all states involved in armed conflicts recognize that it is prohibited to launch an attack that is expected to cause incidental harm to civilians that exceeds the direct military advantage anticipated from the attack. This prohibition is included in military manuals, taught in professional courses, and accepted as almost axiomatic. And yet, the exact meaning of this principle is vague. Almost every issue is in dispute—from the most elementary question of how to compare civilian harm and military advantage, to the possible obligation to employ accurate but expensive weapons. Controversy is especially rife regarding asymmetrical conflicts, in which many modern democracies are involved. How exactly should proportionality be implemented when the enemy is not an army, but a non-state actor embedded within a civilian population? What does it mean to use precautions in attack, when almost every attack is directed at objects that are used for both military and civilian purposes?

Neutrality and Impartiality—The importance of these principles for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the difficulties involved in applying them

1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (273) ◽  
pp. 536-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Harroff-Tavel
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
National Society ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Woman Working

Of all the seven Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, neutrality and impartiality are perhaps the least well understood. They are often confused with each other and give rise to controversy. How can a National Society that is an auxiliary of the public authorities possibly be called neutral? Isn't neutrality sometimes synonymous with passivity or indifference? Can the ICRC regard itself as neutral when it points publicly to violations of international humanitarian law? Does impartiality mean sharing relief equally between the victims on both sides of a conflict? Is it possible to give humanitarian assistance to only one of the parties without violating the principles of neutrality and impartiality? These are questions that have occurred to every man and woman working in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

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.

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