Urban Insurgency, 'Drug War' and International Humanitarian Law: The Case of Rio de Janeiro

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Peterke
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
The State ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
The City

AbstractIn Rio de Janeiro so-called drug factions hold control over most of the shanty towns. The State has reacted by 'militarising' its police operations. The result is a humanitarian tragedy that has already cost the lives of thousands of Brazilian citizens. Many of those affected by the violence are of the opinion that the city has become the battlefield of a 'war'. This article addresses the issue of whether the legal concept of armed conflict could and should be applied to such situations.

Mexico’s Drug War, International Jurisprudence, and the Role of Non-International Armed Conflict Status

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Wotherspoon
Keyword(s):  
Drug Policy ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Drug War ◽  
Public Rhetoric ◽  
The Public ◽  
Drug Violence

When the Calderon Administration escalated anti-drug efforts in 2006, drug-related violence in Mexico reached unprecedented levels. The growing intensity of drug-related violence has led to uncertainty over how to classify the violence spreading across Mexico. Much of the public rhetoric argues that Mexico’s drug-related violence has surpassed that which typically characterizes the drug trade and is instead more similar to armed conflict. Due to the changing landscape of Mexican drug violence, an assessment of whether or not the conflict meets the requisite conditions for a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) is needed to determine if the application of international humanitarian law is appropriate. This paper argues that Mexico’s Drug War meets the conditions for NIAC status and application of IHL is appropriate. The question of how to respond to drug-related violence is becoming increasingly relevant as the effects of such violence extends to a more diverse geographic area within Mexico. NIAC status plays a central role in the future of anti-drug policy and has the potential to prompt significant changes in the handling of drug-related violence in Mexico. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive answer to this question and identify the potential implications that recognition as a NIAC will have on Mexican anti-drug policy.

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.

International humanitarian law in Colombia: Going a step beyond

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (912) ◽  
pp. 1117-1147
Author(s):  
Marcela Giraldo Muñoz ◽  
Jose Serralvo
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
The Creation

AbstractEver since the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Colombia has shifted from one war to the next, be it the War of Independence, the fierce confrontations between liberal and conservative parties or the countless conflicts among guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the State. These wars have brought along a unique contribution to the development of international humanitarian law (IHL). The purpose of this article is to explore the myriad of ways in which Colombia has implemented (and at times made progress on) IHL rules, and to analyze how different conflicts have led the country to explore issues such as the protection of minors, the meaning of the principle of precaution, the compensation of armed conflict victims and the creation of some rather sophisticated transitional justice mechanisms.

scholarly journals Domestic measures during peace time for the implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

IIUC Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Mohammad Saidul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Geneva Conventions

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is frequently neglected by the Parties to the Geneva Conventions during armed conflict (AC). In the contemporary world, IHL has been facing a great threat due to lack of proper implementation which resulted in the severe wounds, unnecessary sufferings, superfluous injury, and even death to the civilians, children, women, and combatants in and outside the armed field. For the implementation of IHL, it is essential that States must take proper steps during peace, conflict, and post-conflict time. The article presents the various mechanisms of implementation of IHL need to be taken by the States during the time of peace. It also focuses the most significant peace time steps sought to be taken by the State to make the IHL rules familiar to the civilians and combatant, to ensure the availability of the necessary instrumentalities for using those during AC for protection and minimization of the sufferings of the victims and to enact essential legislation for trial of the violators after the end of the conflict. IIUC Studies Vol.14(2) December 2017: 111-126

Binding Armed Opposition Groups

2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandesh Sivakumaran
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
The State ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Opposition Groups

AbstractThis article considers how armed opposition groups fighting in an internal armed conflict are bound by the rules of international humanitarian law despite not being party to the relevant treaties. It assesses a number of explanations—customary international law, general principles of international humanitarian law, rules governing treaties and third parties and claims to succession—and argues that each has limited value. The ability of the state to legislate on behalf of all its individuals is considered the best explanation. This principle is explored and objections to it are countered. This article also examines the expressed commitment of armed opposition groups to the rules of international humanitarian law.

Part I: Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Rodenhäuser
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Basic Principle ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
Connected Group ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Contemporary Practice

Analysing the development of the concept of non-state parties to an armed conflict from the writings of philosophers in the eighteenth century through international humanitarian law (IHL) treaty law to contemporary practice, three threads can be identified. First, as pointed out by Rousseau almost two and a half centuries ago, one basic principle underlying the laws of war is that war is not a relation between men but between entities. Accordingly, the lawful objective of parties cannot be to harm opponents as individuals but only to overcome the entity for which the individual fights. This necessitates that any party to an armed conflict is a collective, organized entity and not a loosely connected group of individuals. Second, de Vattel already stressed that civil war is fought between two parties who ‘acknowledge no common judge’ and have no ‘common superior’ on earth....

Insufficient Knowledge in Kunduz: The Precautionary Principle and International Humanitarian Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-79
Author(s):  
Emma J Marchant
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Operational Application ◽  
Federal Court Of Justice ◽  
Insufficient Knowledge

Abstract The targeting protocols applied by forces during armed conflict are some of the most secretive documents held by any military. However, their role in applying principles of international humanitarian law (IHL) means that they are key to understanding their development. This piece is primarily concerned with practical and operational application of the precautionary principle under IHL; how much knowledge is sufficient to carry out an attack lawfully during modern armed conflict. In order to establish if a standard has developed with the increase in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, this piece uses the framework of an investigation into an incident in Kunduz, Afghanistan in 2009. I explore the difficulties of obtaining information post-incident, the differential standards expected by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice), and the manner in which these can be evaluated through the principles of proportionality, distinction and precautions in attack. The piece looks at the interrelated issues raised by the Rules of Engagement and Tactical Directives, as well as the problems surrounding the clarity of intelligence available. I argue that this case is demonstrative of the failings inherent in the application and practical use of the precautionary principle outlined by IHL. The lack of transparency afforded in, and after, incidents of this nature prevents objective analysis and so the development of IHL can be obfuscated. I conclude that the lack of information following incidents of this kind confuses any intelligence standard that exists under IHL.

Thresholds in Flux—the Standard for Ascertaining the Requirement of Organization for Armed Groups under International Humanitarian Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yutaka Arai-Takahashi
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Threshold Condition ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

Abstract The requirement of organization is supposed to be of special importance in international humanitarian law (IHL). In the situation of international armed conflict (IAC), this requirement is implicit as part of the collective conditions to be fulfilled by irregular/independent armed groups to enable their members to claim the prisoners of war status under Article 4 A(2) of the Third Geneva Convention. In a non-international armed conflict (NIAC), the eponymous requirement serves, alongside the requirement of intensity of violence, as the threshold condition for ascertaining the onset of a NIAC. While the requirement of organization has not caused much of disputes in IACs, the international criminal tribunals have shown a willingness to examine scrupulously if armed groups in NIACs are sufficiently organized. Still, this article argues that there is need for a nuanced assessment of the organizational level of an armed group in some specific phases of the ongoing armed conflict whose legal character switches (from an NIAC to an IAC, vice-versa, and from a NIAC to a law-enforcement model). It explores what rationales and argumentative model may be adduced to explain such varying standards for organization in different contexts.

Still a blind spot: The protection of LGBT persons during armed conflict and other situations of violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (907-909) ◽  
pp. 237-265
Author(s):  
Alon Margalit
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Important Progress

AbstractThis article draws attention to the situation of LGBT persons during armed conflict. Subjected to violence and discrimination outside the context of armed conflict, the latter aggravates their vulnerability and exposure to various abuses. Despite important progress made with respect to their protection under human rights law, a similar effort is largely absent from the international humanitarian law discourse. This article accordingly highlights some of the norms and challenges pertaining to the protection of LGBT persons in time of war.

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.

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