Case Study On World Order – International Humanitarian Law

Resource Description

My notes for the World Order case study of international humanitarian law (IHL)

CASE STUDY: INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

Introduction:

• Rules regarding the conduct of hostilities
• Limits on the way wars are waged have existed for centuries.
• For the most part, these limits have been unwritten understandings on how to behave.
• Usually, these understandings were based on the reciprocal recognition of the reality of potential retaliation if certain limits were overstepped.
• Today, there is a special term used when referring to the means and methods of warfare employed by belligerents in armed conflicts.
• This term is: the conduct of hostilities.

Definitions

• Conduct of hostilities: The means and methods of warfare employed by belligerents in armed conflicts.
• Means: The physical means that belligerents use to inflict damage on their enemies during combat. It encompasses all weapons, and includes weapons systems as well as delivery platforms. There are treaty bans prohibiting the use of: laser weapons, biological weapons,
• chemical weapons, anti-personnel landmines, etc.
• Methods: The tactics or strategy used to defeat the enemy by using available information together with weapons, movement and surprise. Examples of prohibited methods of warfare include: terror, starvation, indiscriminate attacks, pillage, taking hostages, damage to the natural environment, etc.
• Armed conflicts: A nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognised by international law. Conflicts between two or more states.

Sources of IHL

• Modern IHL is made up of numerous treaties, humanitarian principles and customary law, all of which set a standard for how the international community should act during times of conflict.
• The treaties that formed the basis for IHL are:
• Hague Convention of 1907
• 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols of 1977
• There are a series of other treaties covering specific issues, particularly in the field of weapons, eg. the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
• IHL works to both promote and maintain world order. It is not always effective and is often limited by state sovereignty and decentralised enforcement mechanisms.