Human Rights

• The rights possessed by all individuals by virtue of being human

• Indivisible, inalienable, and universal

• May be restricted in times of disturbance or conflict

Human Rights vs. International Humanitarian Law

Human Rights vs. International Humanitarian Law

International humanitarian Law

• Protects persons who are not or are no longer participating in hostilities

• Restricts the means and methods of warfare

• Apply to all parties taken part in an armed conflict

The Geneva Conventions of 1949

• Convention for the amelioration of the Condition of the wounded and sick in armed forces

• Convention for the amelioration of the Condition of the wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of the armed forces at sea

• Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war

• Convention relative to the protection of civilians in time of war

(180 States Party)

Additional Protocols

• Protocol I: Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict ( 154 States Party)

• Protocol II: Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflict (147 States Party)

Common Article 3

Each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following:• Persons taking no active part in the hostilities shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion…

The following acts are prohibited:

• Violence to life and person, murder, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture• taking of hostages• outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment• passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment, affording all the judicial guarantees that are recognized as indispensable

The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for. An impartial humanitarian body, such as the ICRC may offer its services the Parties to the conflict.

Armed Conflict

International Armed Conflict• Four Geneva Conventions• Additional Protocol I• All of the third Convention• Fourth convention

Non-international Armed Conflict• Article 3 Common to the Four Geneva Conventions• Additional Protocol II

Genocide Convention

Article 2 of the Genocide Convention of 1948 defines genocide as:

“any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• killing members of the group• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to

bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part• Imposing measure intended to prevent births within the group• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Five Main Principles of IHL

• Civilian Immunity

• Protected Objects and Property

• Protection of Soldiers

• Proportionality

• Military Necessity

War Crimes: Grave Breaches of the Geneva Convention:

•Willful killing

•Torture or inhuman treatment

•Willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health

•Extensive destruction and appropriation of property…

•Compelling a POW or civilian to serve in the forces of a hostile power

•Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or protected civilians of the rights of a fair and regular trial

•Unlawful deportation or transfer of a protected civilian

•Unlawful confinement of a protected civilian; and

•Taking of hostages

Grave BreachesAdditional Protocol I

• Certain medical experimentation

•Making civilians and non-defended localities the object or inevitable victims of attack

•The perfidious use of the red cross or red crescent emblem

•Transfer of an occupying power or parts of its population to occupied territory

•Unjustifiable delays in repatriation of POWs

•Apartheid

•Attack on historic monuments and

•Depriving protected persons of a fair trial.