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International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: Exploring their parallel Application

In the past decade, the jurisprudence of international tribunals has increasingly affirmed the application of international human rights in situations of armed conflict. But while the parallel application of human rights law (IHR) and the laws of war (international humanitarian law or IHL) is becoming established legal doctrine, it also, both in theory and in practice, raises many complex and yet unanswered questions.

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in cooperation with the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Bruce W. Wayne Chair in International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the International Committee of the Red Cross (Tel Aviv Delegation), hosted a major international conference on May 21-22, 2006 in Jerusalem, which explored questions related to the interplay between IHL and IHR legal regimes. Participants in the conference included prominent international experts, such as Judge Theodor Meron of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Prof. William Schabas, of the Irish Centre for Human Rights; Prof. Jochen Abr. Frowein of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg; Prof. Francoise Hampson of the University of Essex; Prof. David Kretzmer of the Hebrew University; and many others.

Beginning with Judge Meron's formidable keynote address ("Some Thoughts on the Humanization of Humanitarian Law"), continuing through the five panel sessions examining various aspects of parallel application and concluding with a roundtable discussion mapping out further issues that have yet to be fully explored, the conference was a great success. Close to 200 people attended the proceedings.

All participants agreed that human rights would continue to apply in times of war, but there were some differences of opinion as to whether human rights law governs military operations conducted outside the national territory of a state. Important questions were also raised relating to the method of accommodating the prescriptions of IHL and IHR, the link between the legality of war and the justifiable nature of restrictions on human rights, application of human rights in the fight against terror and the particular challenges of applying human rights in occupied territories. The participants felt that additional research would particularly be needed on issues such as the application of human rights in internal conflicts and the applicability of social rights in times of war.