Beyond the International Committee of the Red Cross, international humanitarian law (IHL) lacks mechanisms to effectively ensure its own compliance. Such structural flaw of its system prompted a general recourse to the better-equipped human rights machinery, even if the opportuneness of this tendency has long been – and remains – debated in both intergovernmental and scholarly forums.
If some human rights mechanisms provide unique opportunities for victims affected by armed conflict (such as individual complaints before universal and regional treaty bodies), others remain criticized for being inherently political, too slow to deal with violations, or disconnected from the realities of conflict, thus antagonizing important military stakeholders.
Objectives
The purpose of this research project is not to pass judgment on the above-mentioned trend but to contribute to its objective and contemporary assessment. It, therefore, aims at examining how – if at all possible – IHL could be more systematically, appropriately, and correctly dealt with by the human rights mechanisms emanating from the Charter of the United Nations, as well from universal and regional treaties.
Activities
This project currently examines the feasibility and adequate ways of establishing an experts’ pool on IHL, to be at the service of (universal and/or regional) treaty-body mechanisms.
