Protection of Human Lives in Armed

Conflict & Peace

Situation: Human

Rights & Laws of War

Dr. Rey TyNorthern Illinois University

Protection of Human Lives in Armed Conflict

& Peace Situation: Human Rights &

Laws of WarDr. Rey Ty

Northern Illinois University

Protection of Human Lives in Armed Conflict

& Peace Situation: Human Rights &

Laws of WarDr. Rey Ty

Northern Illinois University

Introduction1. Problem: Atrocity

2. Question: What can be done to protect human lives?

3. Objective: To provide international-law based guide for action

4. Method: international law

World War IHistory

World War IIHistory

Suffering

History

United Nations

United Nations

1945 Charter

United Nations1948

Universal Declaration of Human

Rights

Human rights are for everyone: Regardless of gender, color,

language, religion, political or other

opinion, national or social origin,

property, birth or other status.

Young, old, women, men, LGBTQ, poor,

rich, majority, minority, & all kinds

of abilities.

Non-Derogable Rights• Cannot be taken away

1. right to life,

2. right to be free from torture and other inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment,

3. right to be free from slavery or servitude,

4. right to be free from retroactive application of penal laws.

• AKA peremptory norms of international law or jus cogens norms (Art. 53 Vienna Convention).

http://unterm.un.org/DGAACS/unterm.nsf/8fa942046ff7601c85256983007ca4d8/d4dbb9694e5b40da8525751b0077e882?OpenDocument

Principles & Norms of Human Rights Applicable in Emergency Situation:

Underdevelopment, Catastrophes, & Armed Conflict

Stephen Marks

Emergency SituationsStephen Marks

1. In General2. Force Majeure: Natural Catastrophe3. Internal Disturbances & Armed

Conflict4. Conflict Situation & Jus Cogens

Everyone is still entitled to protection in situations of

armed conflict.

International Humanitarian Law

ICRC

Laws of Armed Conflict; Laws of War

1949 Geneva Conventions

1. GC 1: In the Field2. GC 2: At Sea3. GC 3: POWs4. GC 4: Civilian Persons5. Protocol 1 (1977): Victims

of International Armed Conflict

6. P 2 (1977): Non-International Armed Conflict

7. P 3 (2005): Additional Distinctive Emblem

Geneva Conventions & Protocols

Common Article 2 Geneva Conventions

• GCs apply to

1. All declared wars.

2. All undeclared wars.

3. All signatories.

4. All non-signatories.

Common Art. 3 Geneva Conventions• Persons taking no active part in

hostilities, including military persons who have ceased to be active as a result of sickness, injury, or detention, should be treated humanely and that the following acts are prohibited:

1. violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

2. taking of hostages; 3. outrages upon personal dignity, in

particular humiliating and degrading treatment; and

4. the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

• The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

• Article 53: “Treaties conflicting with a peremptory norm of international law (‘jus

cogens’)”

•“A treaty is void, if at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law. For the purpose of the present Convention, a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm accepted & recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted & which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character.”

Isolated acts of violence Civil War International war

Conspiracy War of liberationPEACE WAR

Jus Cogens & Article 3 Geneva Conventions

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Source: S. Marks in Vasak, Paris: UNESCO.

“If you want peace, work for justice.”

P. Paul VI

(1972 World Day of Peace)

Thank You!

Reference:

•Karel Vasak & Philip Alston. The International Dimensions of Human Rights. Paris: UNESCO & Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1982.

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