Chapter IX. The Implementation of International Humanitarian Law by Human Rights Courts: the Example of the Inter-American Human Rights System

Abstract

The traditional way to explore the connection between human rights courts and IHL does not seem so precise and neat once the decisions and reports issued by the supervising mechanisms are examined. The Inter-American Human Rights system has found it difficult to take in hand the matter of its competence to refer to IHL when a specific situation of internal conflict is submitted. This chapter reviews the relationship between IHL and HRL on the one hand, and the applicable laws and competent fora on the other. By examining the vocabulary used by the regional Commission and the Court?in order to shed some light on the expressions denoting the ways in which IHL and HRL intermingle?it demonstrates how and to which extent regional mechanisms to protect human rights are legally able in their praxis to make direct recourse to a set of rules?exclusively applicable in times of armed conflicts. Keywords: armed conflicts; human rights courts; human rights law (HRL); Inter-American Human Rights system; internal conflict; international humanitarian law (IHL)