Relationship between human rights law and international humanitarian law

Abstract

Traditionally, Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law had represented two separated legal regimes. Since their creation and the historical adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and four Geneva Conventions at the end of 1940s, they had been treated as if they coexisted within the international law. In one hand, Human Rights Law had been dealing with the protection of persons from abusive power, and in the other International Humanitarian Law had been dealing with the conduct of parties to an armed conflict. Moreover, the developing international jurisprudence and the work of international institutions led to the recognition that two bodies of law substantially overlapped in practice. They appeared to be complementary and mutually reinforcing. However, in spite of their growing convergence, various perspectives must be taken into account when considering the nature of the relation between two legal regimes. Some significant differences still remain, particularly with regard to right to life because International Humanitarian Law tolerates at some specified degree killings, what is not the case within the regime of Human Rights Law. This article examines the theoretical relationship between two bodies of law (I), secondly, it analyses the jurisprudence and practice of international institutions and finally it demonstrates the divergence between Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law when it comes to one of the fundamental human rights - right to life (III).

Keywords

• human rights law
• international humanitarian law
• complementarity
• lex specialis
• right to life