Human rights and armed conflict

Dr Sawssen Mabrouk

The issue of human rights in times of armed conflict is one of the most important contemporary issues that preoccupy international public opinion and humanitarian organizations, as humanity suffers from the many attacks, injustice and wars.

International humanitarian law has become one of the most important branches of general international law, especially in the era of armaments and the spread of armed conflicts in various countries of the world.
International humanitarian law, the law of war, or the law of armed conflict is a set of rules that protect, in times of armed conflict, people who are not taking part in the fighting or are no longer able to participate in it.

The primary objective of this law is to reduce and avoid human suffering in armed conflicts.
International humanitarian law has gone through a long journey of time that began with the first Geneva Convention of 1864 relating to amelioration of the condition of the wounded members of the armed forces in the field, and during that journey that lasted more than one hundred and thirty years, many conventions came into being that drafted rules for the protection of victims.

Armed conflicts and the reduction of methods and means of warfare, until it reached the establishment of the permanent International Criminal Court in accordance with the 1998 Rome Agreement. All of these agreements aim to limit the effects of war on persons and objects.

Although it coincides with the conventions constituting international human rights law in one goal, which is the protection of human dignity, the conventions constituting international humanitarian law do not apply except in situations of international or non-international armed conflicts.

Accordingly, international humanitarian law is a law distinct from human rights law, but complements it, as both laws seek to protect individuals from arbitrary acts and abuse.
Human rights are inherent in human nature and protect the individual at all times, times of war and times of peace.
As for international humanitarian law, it applies only in situations of armed conflict.

Hence, human rights law and international humanitarian law are applied in an integrated manner in situations of armed conflict.

Dr sawssen Mabrouk correspondent Projet Radici Madenine Tunisia