AbstractAccording to, e.g., some Western governments and the ICRC, existing rules of international law would provide adequate protection of the environment in times of armed conflict. However, a proper analysis of the existing rules, contained in relevant treaties and customary international law, suggests that this protection is currently far from adequate, in times of both international and non-international armed conflict. In order to ensure a better protection of the environment in times of armed conflict, a new approach is required which departs from the obvious necessity of a common recognition of the following three fundamental ideas: 1. the indivisibility of a healthy environment as an indispensable condition for the survival of present and future generations; 2. the necessity to disconnect the legal protection of the environment in times of armed conflict from its anthropocentric legal enclosure; and 3. the need to expand the protective scope of the relevant rules beyond the current level of merely prohibiting the known or expectable and the obsoleteness of the distinction between environment protection pursued by the law of peace and environment protection pursued by the law of armed conflict, as well as recognition of the environment as a common heritage (or at least a common concern) of mankind.
A Framework Convention for the Protection of the Environment in Times of Armed Conflict