International humanitarian law after September 11: challenges and the need to respond

Abstract

The need to enforce and further develop international legal protection after 11 September 2001 has been discussed in prominentforabefore. A wide range of issues (self-defence, humanitarian law, human rights, national laws and regulations, criminal sanctions) must be considered in this context. Different phases of application of the law (international and non-international armed conflict, peace enforcement, post-conflict peace building, etc.) are affected. Misconceptions have been propagated at the highest government levels and have created new problems rather than solving existing ones.Among expert observers, such developments may cause feelings ofdéjà vu. In the years after the adoption of the 1977 Additional Protocols, when one might have expected that all efforts would be taken to accelerate the ratification of these new instruments and ensure respect for their provisions, Protocol I was criticised as being in the service of terror, an allegation that won certain influence although it was promptly and convincingly refuted. Concerns expressed more recently that the application of certain rules of humanitarian law might impede the fight against terrorism may stem from similar ways of thinking. They have made it necessary to explicate in detail that terrorist acts when committed during armed conflict are serious violations of humanitarian law, prohibited without any exception in the Geneva Conventions, their Additional Protocols and other international treaties and customary law, and that only scrupulous respect for international humanitarian law in military campaigns helps to strengthen the determination of all members of the international community to abide by the law in all circumstances.