-
Massacres and Morality: Mass Killing in an Age of Civilian Immunity
- Human Rights Quarterly
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 34, Number 4, November 2012
- pp. 927-958
- 10.1353/hrq.2012.0066
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
The norm of civilian immunity, which holds that civilians must not be intentionally targeted in war or subjected to mass killing, is widely supported and considered a jus cogens principle of international law. Yet not only does mass killing remain a recurrent feature of world politics, but perpetrators sometimes avoid criticism or punishment. This article argues that the paradox can be explained by understanding that civilian immunity confronts a protracted struggle with competing ideologies, some of which have proven resilient, and that decisions about how to interpret the norm in specific cases are subject to intervening contextual variables.