Fighting Terrorism: The Role of Military Ethics, Humanitarian Law, and Human Rights in Theory and Practice

2009 ◽  
pp. 213-230
Author(s):  
Joanne K. Lekea
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Ethics

The Role of Necessity in International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Relationship

The nature of armed conflict has changed dramatically in recent decades. In particular, it is increasingly the case that hostilities now occur alongside ‘everyday’ situations. This has led to a pressing need to determine when a ‘conduct of hostilities’ model (governed by international humanitarian law – IHL) applies and when a ‘law enforcement’ model (governed by international human rights law – IHRL) applies. This, in turn, raises the question of whether these two legal regimes are incompatible or whether they might be applied in parallel. It is on this question that the current article focuses, examining it at the level of principle. Whilst most accounts of the principles underlying these two areas of law focus on humanitarian considerations, few have compared the role played by necessity in each. This article seeks to address this omission. It demonstrates that considerations of necessity play a prominent role in both IHL and IHRL, albeit with differing consequences. It then applies this necessity-based analysis to suggest a principled basis for rationalising the relationship between IHL and IHRL, demonstrating how this approach would operate in practice. It is shown that, by emphasising the role of necessity in IHL and IHRL, an approach can be adopted that reconciles the two in a manner that is sympathetic to their object and purpose.

scholarly journals The role of african court on human and peoples’ rights protection: the case of libyan crises

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-222
Author(s):  
Getahun Kumie Antigegn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Government

The emergence of regional human rights systems depicts one of the greatest achievements in the internationalization of human rights. The foundation of the charter paved the way for the birth of the court thereafter. The African Court is established by virtue of the 1998 protocol to the Charter and the court is built upon an arsenal of protective and remedial techniques. The establishment of the court has reset the stage and created a new platform for the protection of human rights in Africa. The cardinal objective of the paper is to investigate the role of African Court on human and Peoples’ rights protection in Libya Crises taking the case of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi. The paper has utilized qualitative methodology. The government of Libya responded with brutal force against civilian protesters in contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. The security force of the government of Libya killed many protesters as well. This situation intensified human rights violations and enforced many of the peoples to displace. The court issued an important ruling in March 2011, ordering provisional measures against Libya in the armed conflict in its territory. Libya government denied the claims of human rights violations in its territory and showed its willingness to subject itself to criminal investigations by the Court if necessary. The issue of the fund, independence, commitment and competence of judges to interpret mandate and jurisdiction, the willingness of the states to support and to abide by court decisions, and powers of the concerned body to enforce court decisions hampered the court from being effective. Generally, African States act in good faith with respect to the decisions of the African Human Rights Court, the court becomes more import.

War under transnational surveillance: framing ambiguity and the politics of shame

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
PASCAL VENNESSON
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Behavioural Effects ◽  
Israel Defence Force ◽  
Naming And Shaming

Abstract‘Naming and shaming’ those accused of abuse and misconduct is one of the most common strategies of transnational activists. Yet both qualitative and quantitative studies show that the policy and behavioural effects of naming and shaming are often contradictory. Named and shamed actors do respond at least partially by adjusting their policies and behaviour to some extent, but the actions challenged publicly as human rights violations may not cease and can even become more widespread. This ambivalent outcome is usually explained by the uneven capacity of the target to reform or by its ‘strategic’ response to escape the consequences of naming and shaming. By contrast, I show that naming and shaming can be brought to a standstill when the frame used by transnational activists is ambiguous. I trace the role of framing ambiguity during the Human Rights Watch (HRW) ‘naming and shaming’ campaigns against the Israel Defence Force (IDF) in the course of the July–August 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war (Lebanon war), and the December 2008–January 2009 Israel-Hamas war (Gaza war). I argue that HRW's use of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as a frame led to an argumentative deadlock (frame implication contest). This legal frame, and the process of legal framing, did genuinely constrain the IDF, affecting its operations and behaviour. However, the ambiguity of the frame also provided the IDF with a range of material and ideational assets that gave it scope to claim that its actions were actually in conformity with applicable law, and to justify continuing to use force in densely populated areas.

The International Committee of the Red Widget? The Diversity Debate and International Humanitarian Law

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 614-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Provost
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
The Impact

This article asserts there has been a lack of attention to the impact of cultural diversity within the field of international humanitarian law. Discussions surrounding culture in international humanitarian law have nearly always avoided the central issue of cultural particularism. This has been so in relation to the debate surrounding the emblem, in general surveys of humanitarian law, and in discussions of the laws of war in distinct legal and cultural traditions. The emblems debate, in particular, signals the elusiveness of rigid universality within international humanitarian law. Five elements are suggested to explain the resistance of humanitarian law to contagion by the cultural relativism debate in human rights: the nature of human rights, the distinct normative frameworks of human rights and humanitarian law, the unified conventional basis of humanitarian law, the very broad participation in the humanitarian regime, and the unique role of the International Committee of the Red Cross. While these reasons might explain the fact that the relativism debate in human rights did not readily transfer to humanitarian law, they offer no substantive basis for immunity for humanitarian law to the challenges posed by cultural diversity. Ultimately, the article proposes a legal pluralist approach that recognizes the role of actors in the cultural process of norm-creation. Given the continued violation of the laws of war, the author suggests a need to open the door to cultural diversity in order to generate greater compliance. Without cultural legitimacy, there is a danger that humanitarian law aspires to self-defeating universalism.

scholarly journals IUS Post Bellum and The Imperative to Supersede IHL

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 193-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Kalmanovitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The One

In recent debates about the interplay between international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (IHRL), two broad camps have emerged. On the one hand, defenders of what may be called the convergence thesis have emphasized the inclusion of basic rights protections in the so-called “Geneva instruments” of IHL, as well as the role of human rights bodies in interpreting and amplifying rights protections in IHL through juridical or quasi-juridical interpretation and pronouncements. In armed conflicts, it is said, human rights apply concurrently and in ways that strengthen the protective constraints of IHL. Critics of the convergence thesis, on the other hand, have protested that pressing human rights obligations on state forces misunderstands the nature of both IHL and IHRL, and generates misplaced and impossibly onerous demands on belligerents—ultimately and perversely, the effect of emphasizing convergence may be less, not more, human rights protection.

scholarly journals Establishment of the International Criminal Court and the Role of USA: A Legal Appraisal

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 51-69
Author(s):  
Saud Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
National Courts ◽  
The World

In order to end global impunity of perpetration of heinous crimes against humanity and gross violation of human rights and to bring individual perpetrators to justice, international community felt the need for a permanent international criminal court.2 As the armed conflicts and serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law continue to victimize millions of people throughout the world, the reasons for an international criminal court became compelling.3 In many conflicts around the world, armies or rebel groups attack ordinary people and commit terrible human rights abuses against them. Often, these crimes are not punished by the national courts. Here the ICC is complementary to national criminal jurisdictions.4 The court only acts in cases where states are unwilling or unable to do so.5 The jurisdiction of the Court is not retrospective and binds only those States that ratify it.6 Unlike the International Court of Justice in The Hague, whose jurisdiction is restricted to states, the ICC has individualized criminal responsibility. However, the role of USA regarding the establishment and continuation of ICC has caused the organization fall in a trouble. The better cooperation of USA and other states could make the organization more active and effective as to its activities. The view of this paper is to analyze the role of USA towards the establishment, continuation and function of the International Criminal Court. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/nujl.v1i0.18525 Northern University Journal of Law Vol.1 2010: 51-69

12. Human rights and humanitarian law

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas ◽  
Efthymios Papastavridis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Positive Dimension ◽  
Margin Of Appreciation ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Legal Consequences

This chapter examines the nature and diversity of human rights, rather than any particular right. It looks at issues such as the universality, interdependence, and indivisibility of rights. It points to the issue of justiciability and emphasizes the obligation of States in both its negative, as well as its positive, dimension. The chapter examines the role of derogations and reservations to human rights treaties, as well as cardinal principles in such treaties, namely, the margin of appreciation and the scope of application. Finally, the chapter examines in some detail the key aspects and distinctions in international humanitarian law, such as the distinction and legal consequences between combatants and civilians and others.

12. Human rights, international criminal and humanitarian law

2019 ◽  
pp. 160-174
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas ◽  
Efthymios Papastavridis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Margin Of Appreciation ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
Key Aspects

This chapter examines the nature and diversity of human rights, rather than any particular right. It looks at issues such as the universality, interdependence, and indivisibility of rights. It points to the issue of justiciability and emphasizes the obligation of States in both its negative as well as its positive dimension. The chapter examines the role of derogations and reservations to human rights treaties as well as cardinal principles in such treaties, namely the margin of appreciation and the scope of application. The chapter examines the concept of international criminal responsibility and looks at the four core international crimes, namely grave breaches (war crimes), crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. Finally, the chapter examines in some detail the key aspects and distinctions in international humanitarian law, such as the distinction and legal consequences between combatants and civilians and others.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document