Armed Conflict and the Inter-American Human Rights System: Application or Interpretation of International Humanitarian Law?

Abstract

This chapter explores the complexities that arise when the Inter-American System of Human Rights is confronted with situations of armed conflict which may give rise not only to the application of human rights law, but also of international humanitarian law. International humanitarian law has been incorporated into the jurisprudence of the IASHR in two primary means: first, through direct application of the law of war and the subsequent holding that states were in violation of this law, and second, through utilization of IHL as lex specialis providing interpretive reference to the interpretation of human rights during times of armed conflict. This chapter discusses the Commission’s and the Court’s respective jurisprudence on cases that grapple with the interplay between these two branches of international law, and explores the implications of these two approaches to integration of IHL by judicial bodies whose ratione materie is limited to human rights law. The author suggests that the current position of international humanitarian law within the Inter-American Human Rights System is a result of jurisdictional restraints, and not to the substantive differences between the two areas of law.KeywordsSupra NoteArmed ConflictGeneva ConventionVienna ConventionAdvisory OpinionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.