THE LAWS REGULATING THE CONDUCT OF WARFARE

"Laws are silent among [those who use] weapons" - Cicero, Pro Milone, 4,11

"War anywhere is first and foremost an institutional disaster, the breakdown of legal systems, a circumstance in which rights are secured by force. Everyone who has experienced war, particularly the wars of our times, knows that unleashed violence means the obliteration of standards of behaviour and legal systems. Humanitarian action in a war situation is therefore above all a legal appraoch which precedes and accompanies the actual provision of relief. PROTECTING VICTIMS MEANS GIVING THEM A STATUS, GOODS AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE INDISPENSABLE FOR SURVIVAL, AND SETTING UP MONITORING BODIES. In other words the idea is to persuade belligerents to accept an exceptional legal order - the law of war or humanitarian law - specially tailored to such situations . .." Maurice Frederic

International Humanitarian law is the branch of international law that limits the use of violence in armed conflict by making rules that spare those who do not take part or are no longer taking direct part in hostility and by also restricting the violence to the amount necessary to achieve the aim of the conflict which is recognized to be only to weaken the military potential of the enemy, no matter the seriousness or otherwise of the cause being fought for or against.

Despite the seeming impossibility of regulating a course of events as turbulent as warfare, mankind has always recognized the need to lay down rules to guide various aspects of the conduct of war like the treatment and exchange of prisoners. These rules were initially laid down in bilateral treaties between warring states but by the mid 19th century codification and development of the law of warfare in multilateral treaties had started.

The laws that guide the conduct of warfare or which constitute the sources of International Humanitarian law are many but the major sources of law are listed below

1. The Hague Convention of 1907 and the Hague Regulations

2. The four Geneva conventions of 1949, namely Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea, Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

3. The three additional Protocols, namely, Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), of 8 June 1977, Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) of 8 June 1977 and Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem (Protocol III), of 8 December 2005

4. Customary International law.

On this blog we will continually examine the content of these laws as they relate to contemporary armed conflict and seek to engage on pressing issues in International humanitarian law as they play out in contemporary armed conflict s in the Boko Haram non-international armed conflic going on in Nigeria, and other situations of war both in Africa and the rest of the world.

We welcome you to come along with us as we explore the world of law that regulates armed conflict.