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DOI: The Dilemma Of International Humanitarian Law: What And How It Protects
Zhema Shishi PhD , Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Federal University Wukari P.M.B 1020 Wukari, Taraba State-Nigeria Ochoga Edwin Ochoga , Department of Political Science, Federal University Lokoja Lokoja, Kogi State-NigeriaAbstract
Basically the International Humanitarian Law regime is to prevent armed conflicts and war crime,
considering the catastrophic effects of wars generally. This laudable objective clearly underscored
the kind of optimism most states expressed on this noble cause. In the contrary, a study of
International Humanitarian Law regime over the years has left scholars more critical. This has led to
divergent views about who it protects and how. While some studies questioned its evolution to be
Eurocentric, some others faulted it to be unviable, non-coercive and unenforceable. This paper
constitutes a scholarship on these studies and it contends that, the international humanitarian law is
a branch of public international law that deals with humanitarian interventions in wartime and war
crimes. The legal framework of the international humanitarian law is rooted in the Geneva
Conventions of 1949. The missing link is that, the critics of the international humanitarian law based
their argument on the operations of the judicial organ of the international humanitarian law, the
International Criminal Court. The critics had seen the Court as a coercive tool in the hands of the
western countries to witch-hunt African leaders. However, the operations of the Court should not be
used as a premise to diminish the legality of the law to protect its legal personality as provided for in
the Conventions. And it does not in any way invalidate the international humanitarian law of being
law. This is the angle that this paper stands differently from the previous studies.
Keywords
International humanitarian law, , international law
References
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Ibid See Echikwonye…
International Committee of the Red
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Humanitarian Law.( Handbook for
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law:Basic Rules of the Geneva
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See Chapter VII of the United Nations
Charter
Ibid
International Committee of the Red
Cross. Respect for International
Humanitarian Law.( Handbook for
Parliamentarians No.1999)
A.B. Echekwonye. General Principles of
international Law. (Unpublished lecture
note, Benue State University Makurdi,
See Geneva Conventions and Additional
Protocol I
See S.J,Goldstein, International
Relations; Fourth Edition(Priscilla
Mcgreehn,2001); K.W. Charles, World
Politics: Trends and Transformation,
eleventh edition(Thomson
Wadsworth,2007); M.A, Karen, Essentials
of International Relations, (WW North
and Company,2004) ; J,T.Rourke, Taking
Side, Clashing Views on Controversial
Isuues in World Politics (McGrano
Hills/Dushkin,2005); C. Brown,
understanding international Relations
(New York Palgrave,2001); M.A.,
Margesson, International Criminal Court
in Africa: Status and Policy Issues
(Congressional Research Service,Report
for Congress,RL34665,2011 ), M.,
Kowalski, The international Criminal
Court: Reflections for a Stress Test on its
foundations (JANUS,NET E-Journal of
international relations,1(2autumn))
These rules are listed in Protocol I
additional to the Geneva Conventions and
must be respected at all times and in all
places by the States party to the
Conventions.
(see Repressing violations of
international humanitarian law).
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