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ABSTRACT Countries have always experienced a degree of violence that has consequently endangered their rule of law and fundamental rights of their people. The social, civil and political problems are getting more and more complex day by day which has led to increase in levels of violence. The internal violence within countries lead to a situation where fundamental rights of people are hampered and governments continue to disrespect their fundamental obligations. It is at this stage that international community is required to analyse such situations happening within a state and do its best to mitigate the possibilities of human right violations. The incidents of illegal arrest, torture, restriction or complete abrogation of fundamental rights remain high during such situations of internal violence. To tackle these types of incidents, there is a need of comprehensive and well-organised legal order which can make a strict obligation upon national governments to follow their fundamental obligations. In case of failure such governments can be punished in forms of sanctions and various other methods. One side of International law stalwarts say that International Humanitarian Law can be the best way of dealing with such situations while on other side we have scholars who eulogise that International Humanitarian Law is insufficient and vague to deal with the situations of Internal Violence. The paper analyses the concept and working of International Humanitarian law and its scope of application. It also looks at the situations of internal violence and the ability of international humanitarian law to deal with it. Paper also tries to put forward an alternate way to deal with the problems of internal violence in light of certain other international conventions and treaties. In addition to that, the paper adopts a comprehensive insight over working of International Humanitarian law and the points of distinction which it may have with regards to international human rights law. A suggestion has been put forward to widen the area of application of International Humanitarian Law to internal violence with the help of an article by Djamchid Momtaz, a professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran. An observation regarding challenges faced by the present International Humanitarian Law has been made in the paper.
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This definition also leads to show certain inherent limits of IHL: It does not prohibit the use of violence; It cannot protect all those affected by an armed conflict; It cannot prohibit a party to overcome the enemy; IHL presupposes that parties to an armed conflict have rational aims.
In the reality of even contemporary conflicts, the expectations of belligerents and the arguments made, including the hypocrisies adopted, by governments, rebels, politicians, diplomats, fighters, and national and international public opinion refers to standards, not only on when armed violence may be used (or, rather, that it may not be used) but also on how it may be used 2. At the level of judgment on behaviour (and this is what law is all about).
``How does law protect in war``, Volume 1, Outline of International Humanitarian Law, ICRC Ibid. Page 2
When the international courts and tribunal while applying the set provisions of International Humanitarian Law also look at general principles of International law.
While doing so, these courts and tribunals also follow minimum standards to apply International Humanitarian Law.
Sources of International Law There are more than hundreds of treaties and conventions working as source of international law. However, we can have a glance at some of them:
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Ibid. Page 3
First Additional Protocol, 1977 based on International Armed Conflict and protection of civilians.
Weapons and Treaties for their mitigation (Ottawa Convention, Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons, Certain converted weapons)
Apart from aforesaid sources of International Humanitarian Law, there are still other sources which also influence International Humanitarian Law in some way or other. The refugee law, Humanitarian Law, Right to resort to force, Law of sea etc are other International laws which also become components of International Humanitarian Law. The Concepts of Jus-in-bello and Jus-ad-bellum The rules of International law applicable between parties to an armed conflict and related to armed conflict are called as jus in-bello. While Jus ad bellum deals with the rules of International law governing to resort to armed forces. The Geneva Law4 has formed the part of Jus in-bello. Geneva Law says that humanitarian law is a field which is designed to safeguard military personnel and who are not or are no longer taking part in the fighting and persons not actively involved in hostilities. They can be sick persons, prisoners of war (POWs) etc. Further there is Hague law5 which states that the law of war which establishes the rights and obligations of military operations and limits the means of harming the enemy.
Present day modern International Humanitarian law is governed by two principles - the Law of Geneva, i.e. a body of rules which protect victims of war, and the Law of The Hague, i.e. those provisions which affect the conduct of hostilities 5 Supra. Page 4
law (military wounded; sick and shipwrecked; prisoners of war; civilians in occupied territories; the whole civilian population), as well as by the expansion of the situations in which victims are protected (international and non-international armed conflicts);
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the most recent conflicts: as an example , the rules protecting the wounded adopted in 1864 were thus revised in 1906, 1929,1949 and 1977 (critics have therefore accused IHL of being always one war behind reality); Two separate legal currents have, up until 1977, contributed to this development, the Geneva Law, mainly concerned with the protection of the victims and the Hague Law, whose provisions relate to limitations or prohibitions of specific means and methods of warfare6. These two legal currents were merged with the adoption of the two Additional Protocols of 19777. Up until the 1970s, IHL or at least its codified norms has been strongly influenced by western culture and European powers. However, the humanitarian ideas and concepts formalised by IHL treaties are shared by many different schools of thoughts and cultural traditions. This does not however, necessarily negate the universal foundation of IHL. Non-western cultures have also adopted the IHL and have provided proper inputs after the time of 1970s. however, the problem it faces with universal values is probably one of the greatest challenges faced by humanity. The law cannot avoid addressing it. Unfortunately, the question of the universal nature of IHL has prompted little scholarly deliberation, unlike the body of human rights law, whose universal nature has been forcefully called into question-by anthropologists, among others, and particularly since the 1980s. International Humanitarian Law developed at a time when the use of force was a lawful form of international relations, when states where not prohibited to wage war, when they had the right to
Present-day international humanitarian law has grown from two main sources: the Law of Geneva, i.e. a body of rules which protect victims of war, and the Law of The Hague, i.e. those provisions which affect the conduct of hostilities.
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The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are at the core of international humanitarian law, the body of international law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects. They specifically protect people who are not taking part in the hostilities (civilians, health workers and aid workers) and those who are no longer participating in the hostilities, such as wounded, sick and shipwrecked soldiers and prisoners of war. Page 6
Jus ad bellum (Latin for "right to war") is a set of criteria that are to be consulted before engaging in war, in order to determine whether entering into war is permissible; that is, whether it is a just war.
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Jus in bello The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war (jus ad bellum) and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct (jus in bello or International humanitarian law).
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``How does law protect in war``, Volume 1, Outline of International Humanitarian Law, ICRC Article 2 (1) common to the conventions Page 7
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It states certain instances in the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, certain provisions. Article 3 merely states that it is applicable in case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring on the territory of one of the High contracting parties[]
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Supra See Case no. 15, the International Court of Criminal Court [A., The Statute, Article 8(2) (f).] p.608
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The notions of internal disturbances and tensions have not been the object of precise definition during 1974-1977 Diplomatic Conference.
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For an exhaustive list of international instruments on terrorism, see the Internet site UN action against terrorism. http://www. Un.org/terrorism Page 9
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Thus, article 44 (1)-(3) of protocol-1 on combatant status deals with the question who may use force, an issue not addressed by International Human Rights Law, but which is crucial for protection of civilians. Page 11
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David P. Forsythe, The Humanitarians, The International Committee of the Red Cross Page 12
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Erga omnes is a Latin phrase which literally means "towards all" or "towards everyone". In legal terminology, erga omnes rights or obligations are owed toward all. For instance a property right is an erga omnes entitlement, and therefore enforceable against anybody infringing that right. An erga omnes right (a statutory right) can here be distinguished from a right based on contract, which is only enforceable against the contracting party. Page 13
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http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/5kzk2z.htm
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Article by Djamchid Momtaz. He is a professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran.
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Frits Kalshoven, Assisting the Victims of Armed Conflict and Other Disasters. Page 14
http://www.un.org/rights/HRToday/hrconfl.htm visited as on March 04,2013 http://www.geneva-academy.ch/ visited as on March 04,2013 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2065974 visited as on March 04,2013 Page 15
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Md. Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan, Prof Louise Doswald Beck & Prof. Azizur Rahman Chowdhury, International Humanitarian Law - An Anthology Page 16
Ibid. Page 17
Primary Source
Md. Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan, Prof Louise Doswald Beck & Prof. Azizur Rahman Chowdhury, International Humanitarian Law - An Anthology
Article by Djamchid Momtaz. He is a professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran.
Frits Kalshoven, Assisting the Victims of Armed Conflict and Other Disasters.
``How does law protect in war``, Volume 1, Outline of International Humanitarian Law, ICRC
David P. Forsythe, The Humanitarians, The International Committee of the Red Cross
Secondary Sources
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43368&Cr=idps&Cr1= March 04,2013 as visited on
as visited on
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