Human Rights in War: On the Entangled Foundations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions

Abstract

The relationship between human rights and humanitarian law is one of the most contentious topics in the history of international law. Most scholars studying their foundations argue that these two fields of law developed separately until the 1960s. This article, by contrast, reveals a much earlier cross-fertilization between these disciplines. It shows how “human rights thinking” played a critical generative role in transforming humanitarian law, thereby creating important legacies for today's understandings of international law in armed conflict.

What is IHL history now?

“…However, we must never ignore the Convention's deliberate silence on the threats of indiscriminate bombing and hunger blockade. 38 If nostalgic visions eulogize IHL's past, progressive counter-narratives of the discipline's historical trajectory often portray it as one of gradually developing from a horrific past to a more enlightened future of humane warfare. Writers in this vein have all too often regarded IHL history as a process of learning, from which more humane conceptions of warfare continue to emerge as time goes on.…”

Prohibition of Child Recruitment as Soldiers: An International Regulatory Discourse

“…3 This is regulated in the 1949 Geneva Convention. 4 In several armed conflicts, children are actually used as objects in combat or even directly involved in combat, namely by turning them into child soldiers or as human shields. The use of child soldiers has been criticized by all countries in the world and is considered a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a violation of children's rights because children cannot be recruited into the army.…”