Legal explainers

International armed conflicts

International armed conflicts (IACs) are usually fought between sovereign States and can take three forms: declaration of war, military occupation (even if met with no armed resistance) or any resort to armed force between two or more States (no matter how limited the violence is). Art 2 common to …

Military occupation

As a specific form of IACs, military occupation must fulfil the following cumulative conditions: The armed forces of a State are physically present in a foreign territory without the consent of the effective local government in place at the time of the invasion; The effective local…

Non-international armed conflicts

Non-international armed conflicts (NIAC) involve either a State fighting organized armed group(s), or organized armed groups fighting each other. For a NIAC to exist, two criteria must be met under Article 3 common to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law: Intensity…

Rules on the Conduct of Hostilities

International humanitarian law provides a detailed framework to govern the conduct of hostilities (traditionally known as “Hague law”). Additional Protocols I and (albeit to a more limited extent) II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions set forth detailed rules in relation to, respectively,…

Means and Methods of Warfare

A means of warfare is a weapon or weapon platform. A method of warfare is the manner in which a weapon is used.20 In addition to the general rules on the conduct of hostilities, the use of weapons is subject to two general principles of a customary law nature.S. Casey-Maslen, ‘Weapons’, in B….

Starvation and Access to Humanitarian Relief

Situations of armed conflict may result in acute deprivation of food, water and other essential supplies for the civilian population. IHL sets forth a number of rules to ward off this scenario. Some of these rules prohibit conducts by parties to the conflict that would deliberately (if not…

Medical Care

The rules on medical care lie at the heart of modern IHL since the adoption of the first-ever Geneva Convention in 1864, and apply to all types of armed conflict. The over-arching principle of protection and care has two facets. Protection of the sick and wounded A first set of rules relates …

Forcible Displacement

IHL does not prohibit the voluntary movement of civilian populations in situations of armed conflict (e.g., to flee hostilities and seek refuge). However, it does prohibit those situations where displacement is forcible – i.e., when the desire to leave is not genuine but rather determined by…

Deprivation of Liberty

IHL prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty. ICRC, Customary IHL Study Rule 99: ‘Deprivation of Liberty’, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule99 The arbitrary nature of such deprivation, and therefore its unlawful character, flow from either the grounds or the procedure….

Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment

Humane treatment The principle of humane treatment is at the core of IHL. The norm, which must be respected in both IACs and NIACs, Common Art 3 GCs; Art 12(1) GC I; Art 12(1) GC II; Art 13 GC III; Arts 5 and 27(1) GC IV; Art 75(1) AP I; Art 4(1) AP II; ICRC, Customary IHL Rule 87: ‘Humane…

Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Limitations in existing regulation Conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) includes such conducts as ‘rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable…

Specific vulnerabilities

Women Under IHL, special protection is afforded to women, based upon perceived vulnerabilities, whether objectively and physiologically justified, or based on social stereotypes. Treaty IHL also understands gender as limited to biological sex and does not go further than a binary distinction …