An Evolving Research Agenda for International Human Rights in War

Abstract

This final chapter concludes the present volume by reflecting on the significance of its content. I suggest that this volume’s significance lies not only in its continuities with the themes of the preceding volumes in the series on International Human Rights, but also, and especially, in its departures. The present volume shows, for example, how the rise of human rights and, by extension, the development of human rights law have been shaped by armed conflict. It also situates the promise and precarity of human rights in the context of war which, broadly understood, includes international armed conflict and non-international armed conflict as well as crimes against humanity, genocide, and transnational terrorism. As such, this volume serves as an invaluable handbook that enhances collective understanding of human rights and war, and of the ongoing relationship between the two; it is, therefore, an important resource for all those wanting to take new, or perhaps more effective, action to realize the promise of human rights during those times of strife when governments are either less able to protect their citizens from harm or, worse, take the opportunity to deliberately subject their populations to political violence. I also suggest this volume is significant because its diversity of approaches helps challenge conventional thinking on the evolving relationship between human rights and war. These diverse approaches open spaces for new and emerging issues to be explored within an evolving research agenda on international human rights in war. I close out this concluding chapter by foregrounding the role of “the expert” in the production of knowledge on this important nexus not only when academics write for an academic audience but also when researchers of all varieties write for those who exercise bureaucratic or executive power.