Environmental protection during armed conflicts

Abstract

Environment is a term which is ever more often used in the media, and in recent years also in everyday communication of ordinary people. However, there is a small number of those who are aware of the need for environmental protection even in peacetime conditions, while during armed conflict almost nobody cares about pollution and long-term destruction of the environment. In international humanitarian law, there are just a few rules that directly protect the environment. These rules can be found in the 1977 Additional Protocol I to 1976 ENMOD Convention and the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, as well as its Protocol III on Incendiary Weapons. There are also a number of binding rules that indirectly protect the environment, and the most important are some general principles of international humanitarian law, which derive their force from their customary nature and thus are applicable to all countries. Indirectly, the environment is also protected by some contractual obligations, such as the 1907 Hague Regulations, the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians, and the Additional Protocol I. In order to provide practical explanation based on examples of the effects of an armed conflict on the environment, the paper first defines basic terms, and then, using the example of the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), explains the role and importance of international humanitarian law for the protection of the environment during armed conflicts.