Human rights and the norms of modern warfare -- Humanizing the laws of war -- The implosion of Iraq : "shock and awe," insurgency, and sectarian terror -- The Gaza wars, 2008-2014 : human rights agency and advocacy -- Who's responsible? Justice and accountability -- "Kind-hearted gunmen" : human rights and humanitarian intervention.
While recognizing the changing face of war casualties (the civilian casualty rate has escalated from five percent in World War I to up to 90 percent in recent conflicts), the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians has not been able to reverse that trend. In this project of the International Peace Academy, with which the editor is affiliated, a dozen essays endeavor to expand the tools available to protect civilians in times of war. They address the themes of the evolving norms of international humanitarian law, inducing compliance, enforcing compliance, and reevaluating protection by reviewing traditional assumptions and new needs to deal at the local level with unconventional belligerents like guerillas. c. Book News Inc.
Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 7,5, University of Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), course: International Humanitarian Law, language: English, abstract: At the beginning of the 21st century it seems that warfare and armed conflict get messier and more chaotic than ever before. The phenomenon of weak and fragile statehood destabilizes whole regions and makes intra-state conflict to a constant feature with spill-over character in many areas of the world. At the same time do non-state armed actors, from warlords to armed militias to terrorists to private military firms, re-enter the international conflictscene. The globalized character of contemporary organized violence, especially the phenomenon of transnational terrorism, does challenge the international security structure. While symmetric inter-state conflicts are constantly decreasing and less likely to appear, the dominant form of contemporary armed conflict is intra-state and asymmetric by nature. One of the most striking features within contemporary armed violence is the increasingly important role of civilians, as victims but also as perpetrators and participants in hostilities. The fundamental line between soldiers and civilians has long been essential to the law of war, but with the rise of transnational terrorism, warlords and other non-state actors in armed conflict this distinction gets seemingly blurred.
"Technological advances have meant that civilians are now enabled to play a greater role than ever before in monitoring and documenting violations during armed conflict or in other insecure environments. As UN rapporteurs and other official international monitors are effectively denied access to a wide range of insecure territories around the world, civilian monitors have become a complementary, and in some cases the principal, source of information on what is happening on the ground to civilian populations. This report is about harnessing developments already in motion internationally to produce better information about human rights and IHL violations in situations affected by conflict. Its main contention is that local civil society actors can be enabled, with the help of modern technology, to become central actors in the processes of monitoring, documentation and reporting. Empowering local activists has not only practical value, in that these activists often have the closest access to victims of violations, but normative value as well, because it makes monitoring more inclusive, participatory, and meaningful to local populations. The basis of this report is the experience of the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights and Minority Rights Group International in implementing a system of civilian-led monitoring in Iraq between 2014 and 2017, which is presented as a case study to illustrate one possible application of the approach put forward throughout the report"--Publisher's web site.
Thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed or injured during the three weeks of fighting from the first air strikes on March 20 to April 9, 2003, when Baghdad fell to U.S.-led coalition forces. Human rights investigated the conduct of the war during a five-week mission in Iraq. This report documents Iraqi violations of international humanitarian law, including use of human shields, abuse of the red cross and red crescent emblems, use of antipersonnel landmines, location of military objects in protected places, and failure to take adequate precautions to protect civilians from the dangers resulting from military operations.
According to UNICEF, the number of civilian casualties in war climbed from 5 percent at the turn of the twentieth century to more than 90 percent at the end of that century. Additionally, the current war against ISIS has racked up a staggering number of civilian deaths, including children. The days when professional armies fought in contained areas are long gone, having been replaced by drone strikes, neighbors shooting at neighbors from apartment windows, and massacres in rural villages. The viewpoints in this resource examine this byproduct of modern war and explore strategies for reducing civilian casualties.
