The Pulse of Humanitarian Assistance

2. Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: A Decade of Promises

2 Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: A Decade of Promises Sheri Fink, M.D. The idea that civilians merit protection during armed conflict began to arise many centuries ago. The principle is currently enshrined in international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims of 1948 and their two Additional Protocols (1977). These instruments specify that civilians, medical personnel and other categories of noncombatants are not legitimate targets of violence during wartime and are to be afforded protection and other specified rights. The Conventions also confer rights and responsibilities on humanitarian actors during wartime. Humanitarians aim to relieve civilian suffering and, as such, to protect civilians from many of the harmful or deadly effects of war including deprivations of food, shelter, and medical care. The humanitarian role in physical protection from violence is less clear-cut. Some analysts argue that the mere presence of humanitarian actors provides protection to civilians. However recent experience has suggested that presence may also confer a false sense of protection, and that humanitarian presence may paradoxically present an obstacle to effective military action aimed at neutralizing aggressive forces. Inappropriate interpretation of the humanitarian principle of neutrality may also prevent humanitarians from conceiving of certain populations as endangered and in need of physical protection from aggressive forces. The genocides of the mid-1990s in Rwanda and Bosnia highlighted the failures of established international systems to protect civilians during armed conflicts, even in cases where the aim of the conflict was clearly the destruction of a civilian population. PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT 23 These failures have been acknowledged to varying degrees by the United Nations, its Member States, and humanitarian organizations . A number of investigations have been undertaken, proposals issued, and commitments made to improve the security of civilians and other noncombatants. Over the past decade, several positive steps have been made. For example, the ability of leaders to commit grave breaches of humanitarian law within the borders of their own countries with impunity and without fear of international intervention has been reduced. However, on the decennial of the Rwandan genocide, at a highlevel conference on genocide prevention, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lamented, ‘‘I long for the day when we can say with confidence that, confronted with a new Rwanda or a new Srebrenica , the world would respond effectively, and in good time. But let us not delude ourselves. That day has yet to come and we must all do more to bring that day closer.’’1 That ‘‘we’’ includes humanitarians, who are often among the few outsiders present in situations of extreme violence and whose traditional role has been to both assist and protect the vulnerable. While responsibility for ensuring the physical protection of civilians during wartime rests primarily with governments and militaries , humanitarians must also embrace this goal as central to their work, including regularly examining their activities as contributing to or detracting from this aim. Background The right of noncombatants to protection in wartime, and the duty of others to protect them, currently extends from three bodies of law: international humanitarian, refugee, and human rights. International humanitarian law, as embodied by the Geneva Conventions and other related instruments, requires that belligerents respect the four principles of discrimination between military and nonmilitary objects, proportionality (the degree of force used should be proportional to anticipated military advantage and should be weighed against the risk of ‘‘collateral’’ damage to civilians), precaution to minimize noncombatant risk, and 24 SHERI FINK, M.D. protection of noncombatants. Noncombatants include not only civilians having nothing to do with the fighting, but also injured and captured fighters, refugees, and humanitarian, medical, religious, and journalistic personnel carrying out their duties in the conflict area. Refugee law gives nations the duty to grant asylum, thus protecting refugees when their home countries have failed to do so. Finally, human rights law protects certain ‘‘non-derogable’’ rights that are not to be limited during time of war or national emergency. These include the rights to life; juridical personality and legal due process; and freedoms of religion, thought, and conscience. Human rights law also prohibits torture, slavery, and degrading or inhuman treatment or punishment in wartime as well as peacetime. To summarize, the protection to be afforded noncombatants during wartime is, at base, protection against suffering and death, whether from physical violence, wartime deprivations, or the violation of inalienable human...