ULUSLARARASI KAMU HUKUKU II

International humanitarian law is
currently the fashionable term used by the
United Nations (UN), the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
in order to stress both the humanitarian
purpose of this law and the convergence
/ synthesis between laws of war and
international human rights law.

International humanitarian law is
currently the fashionable term used by the
United Nations (UN), the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
in order to stress both the humanitarian
purpose of this law and the convergence
/ synthesis between laws of war and
international human rights law

The law of war reflects the military
perspective and is the old-fashioned one
since the term armed conflict has now
replaced war.

The law of armed conflict, however, is a
better term since this term covers both
the restriction of warfare (military aspect)
and the protection of those who are not
involved in actual hostilities and those are
involved, e.g. combatants (humanitarian
aspect). Along with the entry into force
of the United Nations Charter and the
prohibition on the use of force, war and
other concepts related to it was replaced
with different expressions such as dispute,
situation, use of force, and aggression
(Çaycı, 1995: 37).

IHL aims at prohibiting:
• Summary executions of civilians and
military personnel,
• Ethnic cleansing and forcible displacement,
• Mistreatment of detained prisoners of war,
• Indiscriminate use of force against civilians
and civilian objects,
• Attacks on medical, religious and
humanitarian relief services and personnel

Looting and other destruction of civilian
property with no military purpose,
• Terrorizing and starving the civilian
population,
• Use of human shields against a pending
attack,
• The use of particular prohibited methods of
warfare (Slomanson, 2007: 497).

As a part of international law, the sources
of IHL are also commonly accepted sources as
stated in the Art. 38(1) of the Statute of the ICJ;
primarily treaties, custom and general principles of
law; secondarily, judicial decisions and doctrine.

Geneva Law includes the four Geneva Conventions
of 1949 and their three Additional Protocols. Namely,
the Geneva Convention (I) on Wounded and Sick on
Land; the Geneva Convention (II) on Wounded, Sick
and Shipwrecked at Sea; the Geneva Convention (III)
on Prisoners of War, the Geneva Convention (IV) on
Protection of Civilians

The degree to which IHL treaties reflect customary law
is controversial (Aust, 2010: 237). The original Hague Law
and much of Geneva Law are now regarded as reflecting
customary law (ICJ, 2004: para. 89). For instance, in
its Judgment of 30.9-1.10.1946 the Nuremberg Tribunal
considered the 1907 Hague Convention V or ICJ considered
the Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
as customary rules (ICJ, 1986: 114-5). The importance of
customary law can be seen in the Martens clause.

Ottoman Empire became a party to the 1864
Geneva Convention on 5 July 1865, and it
ratified the 1899 Conventions on 12 June 1907
(Tütüncü, 2012: 6).

Scope of IHL refers to the strategic situations
in which rules of IHL may become applicable. In
terms of IHL, strategic situations can be divided
into five categories as peace, armed conflict,
neutrality, occupation, and collective security
(peace support) operations.

Armed conflicts are international or noninternational strategic situations, in which, at least
one side of a conflict uses armed force to achieve its
political goals.

insurgency can be defined as the military operations of non-State armed
groups.