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Trends in the application of international humanitarian law by United Nations human rights mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2010

Daniel O'Donnell
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Extract

UN human rights mechanisms continue to proliferate, producing numerous decisions and voluminous reports. This article reviews the ways in which such mechanisms apply international humanitarian law, including the law of Geneva and the law of The Hague. In doing so, it focuses mainly on the practice of the rapporteurs appointed by the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate the human rights situations in specific countries and on that of the thematic rapporteurs and working groups which the Commission has entrusted with monitoring specific types of serious human rights violations wherever they occur, in particular the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, whose mandates most often lead them to examine abuses occurring in the context of armed conflicts. Reference is also made to two innovative mechanisms which functioned in El Salvador: the first UN-sponsored “truth commission” and the first human rights monitoring body established as part of a comprehensive mechanism for monitoring compliance with a UN-sponsored peace agreement. Certain observations made by treaty monitoring bodies are also mentioned.

Type
50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Human rights and international humanitarian law
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 38 , Special Issue 324: 1948—1998 Human rights and international humanitarian law , September 1998 , pp. 481 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1998

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References

1 E/CN.4/1993/45, para. 113.

2 E/CN.4/1994/58, paras. 112–116, 185.

3 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II).

4 E/CN.4/1995/Add.2, para. 63.

5 E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, Principle 6.

6 First Report of the ONUSAL Human Rights Division, A/45/1055-S/23037, Annex, paras. 17–25, reprinted in The United Nations and El Salvador, 1990–1995, UN doc, DPI/1475, pp. 152 and 153.

7 Ibid., para. 52.

8 Third report of the Human Rights Division, A/46/23580-S/23580, paras. 170 and 172, reprinted in The United Nations and El Salvador, supra (note 6), p. 235.

9 E/CN.4/1990/22/Add.1, para. 50.

10 Ibid.

11 E/CN.4/1996/65, para. 180.

12 E//CN.4/1993/45, para. 184.

13 E/CN.4/1992/S-1/9, para. 17.

14 Ibid., para. 20.

15 Ibid., para. 6.

16 General comment 7, para. 13, reprinted in Compilation of general comments and general recommendations adopted by human rights treaty bodies, HRI/GEN/1/Rev.3, 1997, p. 96.

17 The argument for an expansive interpretation of the applicability of human rights law is stated in the report of the Special Rapporteur on Mercenaries, E/CN.4/1991/14, para. 158. The classical position is defended by the Special Rapporteur on Torture in E/CN.4/1994/31, paras. 12 and 13. Most UN rapporteurs and working groups have not addressed this question expressly but, although their practice is not entirely consistent, they generally apply the position defended by the Special Rapporteur on Torture.

18 “From madness to hope”, chap. IV E, reproduced in The United Nations and El Salvador, supra (note 6), p. 377.

19 Ibid., pp. 370, 373, 376 and 377.

20 Ibid., p. 297.

21 Ibid., p. 367.

22 E/CN.4/1994/48, paras. 23 and 130.

23 Ibid., para. 115.

24 Ibid., para. 101.

25 E/CN.4/1996/62, para. 87.

26 E/CN.4/1997/58, para. 27.

27 E/CN.4/1995/111, para. 57.

28 E/CN.4/1998/54, chap. I. See also the report on a mission to Rwanda, E/CN.4/1998/54/Add.1, and the report on a mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the issue of military sexual slavery in wartime, E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.1.

29 Ibid., paras. 16 and 17.

30 Special Representative on Sudan, E/CN.4/1996/62, paras. 39 and 40.

31 E/CN.4/1997/58, para. 39; E/CN.4/1998/66 paras. 35 and 36.

32 E/CN.4/1992/30, para. 28.

33 Ibid., paras. 19–28 and 608.

34 E/CN.4/1995/34, para. 17.

35 E/CN.4/1997/7, para. 11.

36 Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Uganda, of 10 October 1997, UN doc. CRC/C/69, para. 136.

37 Ibid., para. 151.

38 Supra (note 36), paras. 154–156 and 176.

39 A/47/666, paras. 129–132.

40 E/CN.4/1993/50, paras. 256 and 260.

41 Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, E/CN.4/1995/Add.2, para. 68; Report of Special Rapporteur on Executions, E/CN.4/4/Add.1, paras. 43–45.

42 E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, Principle 7.

43 E/CN.4/1996/52, para. 22.

44 Ibid., para. 32.

45 A/52/40, para. 148.

46 Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, Commentary published under the general editorship of Jean S. Pictet, ICRC, Geneva, 1952–1960.

47 E/CN.4/1995/50/Add.2, para. 50.

48 E/CN.4/1996/4/Add.1, paras. 61, 63 and 64.

49 E/CN.4/1998/54, paras. 19–57.

50 A/47/596, para. 105.

51 Protocol II, Art. 2 (2); for international armed conflict, see Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Art. 6, and Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Art. 5.

52 E/CN.4/1992/33, paras. 37, 38 and 98.

53 E/CN.4/1996/4/Add.2, para. 104.

54 E/CN.4/1996/4/Add.2.

55 E/CN.4/1997/58, para. 59(c).

56 E/CN.4/1994/44/Add.1, para. 80.

57 E/CN.4/1994/73/Add.1, para. 79.

58 E/CN.4/1996/65, paras. 3 and 180(b).

59 E/CN.4/1995/111, para. 129.

60 E/CN.4/1998/38, para. 230–232.

61 Myanmar, E/CN.4/1996/65, para. 180(e).

62 A/49/635, para. 158(h).

63 E/CN.4/1992/34, paras. 444–446.

64 E/CN.4/1992/S-1/9, para. 64.

65 Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, E/CN.4/1992/33, para. 115(e).

66 E/CN.4/1992/17/Add.1, para. 55.

67 E/CN.4/1992/S-l/9, para. 13.

68 Iraq, E/CN.4/1997/57, para. 24; former Yugoslavia, E/CN.4/1996/63, para. 58.

69 Declaration of minimum humanitarian standards, E/CN.4/1996/80; Guiding Principles on internal displacement, E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2; and draft Basic Principles and Guidelines on the right to reparation of victims of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, E/CN.4/1998/34.

70 E/CN.4/1994/58, para. 108.

71 E/CN.4/1992/34, paras. 398 and 399.

72 E/CN.4/1992/33, para. 49.

73 Ibid., para. 56.

74 Ibid., para. 46.

75 See for example paras. 53–55, 105 and 106, which implicitly raise issues concerning discrimination on the basis of nationality, religion and rank.

76 E/CN.4/73/Add.1, para. 79.

77 E/CN.4/1994/58, para. 189.

78 Ibid., para. 185.

79 Ibid., para. 112.

80 E/CN.4/1992/S-1/9, para. 69.

81 E/CN.4/1993/50, para. 259.

82 General Recommendation XVIII, operative para. 1, UN doc. A/49/18, 1994, reprinted in “Compilation…”, supra (note 16), p. 111.

83 E/CN.4/1998/14, para. 60.