Human Rights in Armed Conflict
Law, Practice, Policy

A comprehensive analysis of the legal challenges and practical consequences of applying international human rights law in armed conflict situations.

Gerd Oberleitner (Author)

9781107087545, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 March 2015

431 pages
25.5 x 18.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.89 kg

'In Human Rights in Armed Conflict, Gerd Oberleitner offers a meticulous analysis and asks profound questions about the 'purpose, nature and scope of the whole jus in bello' … a very welcome addition to the literature on human rights in armed conflicts.' Ezequiel Heffes, International Review of the Red Cross

It is now widely accepted that international human rights law applies in situations of armed conflict alongside international humanitarian law, but the contours and consequences of this development remain unclear. This book revisits, organizes and contextualizes the debate on human rights in armed conflict and explores the legal challenges, operational consequences and policy implications of resorting to human rights in situations of inter- and intra-state violence. It presents the benefits and the drawbacks of using international human rights law alongside humanitarian law and discusses how the idea, law and policy of human rights influence the development of the law of armed conflict. Based on legal theory, policy analysis, state practice and the work of human rights bodies, it suggests a human rights-oriented reading of the law of armed conflict as feasible and necessary in response to the changing character of war.

Introduction
Part I. Human Rights in Armed Conflict: History of an Idea: 1. From mediaeval sources to modernity
2. The science of warfare and the progress of civilization
3. 1945: whither war?
4. Human rights in armed conflict
Part II. Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Theory: 5. Exclusivity: the misconceived idea of lex specialis
6. Complementarity: maximizing protection
7. Integration: the transformative influence of human rights
Part III. Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Challenges and Commonalities: 8. The right to life: the limits of human rights in armed conflict?
9. The extraterritorial application of human rights: functional universality
10. War as emergency: derogation
11. Human rights and humanitarian obligations
12. Operationalising human rights in armed conflict
Part IV. The Dynamics of War and Law: 13. The changing character of war
14. Governing internal armed violence
15. Human rights in situations of occupation
16. Context: the humanization of international law
Part V. Enforcement: Practice and Potential: 17. United Nations Human Rights Council: monitoring armed conflicts
18. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
19. United Nations human rights treaty bodies
20. The Inter-American human rights system
21. The European Court of Human Rights
22. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
23. Monitoring and litigating humanitarian rights: prospects
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS]