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Unlawful Damage in Armed Conflicts and Redress under International Humanitarian Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Yves Sandoz
Yves Sandoz*
Affiliation:
Deputy Director Department of Principles and Law International Committee of the Red Cross
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Extract

Side by side with aspirations for universal peace, efforts to limit the effects of war have been made throughout all of history and in all of the world's great civilizations. Such efforts, however, have primarily taken the form of religious or moral precepts; although treaties were in fact concluded, they were limited in scope.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 22 , Issue 228 , June 1982 , pp. 131 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1982

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References

1 We have in mind, for example, a draft declaration on the laws and customs of war adopted at the Brussels Conference of 1874, which never went into effect; a treaty concerning the use of submarines and asphyxiating gases in time of war, signed at Washington on 6 February 1922, which also did not go into effect; rules on control of radiotelegraphy in wartime and on aerial warfare, adopted at The Hague in 1922 by an intergovernmental commission of jurists, but not followed up by governments; projects discussed at the Disarmament Conference of 1932–1934.

2 In this connection, The Manual on the Laws of War on Land (1880)Google Scholar, published by the Institute of International Law and the Manual (1913) issued by the same Institute on the Laws of Naval War governing relations between belligerents deserve detailed study.

3 The Commission expressed itself as follows: “War having been outlawed, the regulation of its conduct has ceased to be relevant… If the Commission, at the very beginning of its task, were to undertake this study, public opinion might interpret its action as showing lack of confidence in the efficiency of the means at the disposal of the United Nations for maintaining peace”. (Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1949, p. 281).

4 The commitment by signatories would “cease to be compulsory from the moment when, in a war between contracting or acceding parties, a non-contracting party or a non-acceding party shall join one of the belligerents”.

5 On this subject, see, inter alia, Meyrowitz, Henri: Reflexions on the Centenary of the Declaration of Saint-Petersburg, in International Review of the Red Cross, 12 1968, p. 611 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spaight, James M.: Air Power and War Rights, London, 1942, p. 198 Google Scholar; Sandoz, Yves: Des armes interdites en droit de la guerre, Geneva, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

6 This condensed title, used throughout this paper, stands for: The Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts.

7 This refers to the Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, annexed to the Convention.

8 Actes et documents de la deuxième Conférence Internationale de la Paix, The Hague, Imprimerie Nationale, 1907, vol. III, p. 145.Google Scholar

9 On this subject, see the Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, published under the direction of Jean Pictet, Geneva, 1956, pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

10 See Article 89 of the Convention.

11 See note 4 p. 134 above.

12 See Articles 25 and 82, respectively, of these Conventions.

13 See Article 30 of this Convention.

14 Part VIII, Execution of the Convention, Section II, Articles 86 to 88.

15 Commentary on the First Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, published under the direction of Jean Pictet, ICRC, Geneva, 1952 p. 373.Google Scholar

16 Official Record of the Diplomatic Conference on International Humanitarian Law, Vol. VI, p. 344 Google Scholar (CDDH/SR. 46, par. 23).

17 Draft Resolution A/Conf. 95/L. 6, asking all States not bound by the Convention of 10 October 1980 and engaged in an armed conflict to notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations that in the conflict they will apply the Convention and one or more of the protocols annexed to it vis-à-vis all other parties to the conflict which accept and discharge the same obligations.