A remedy against war crimes? The role of human rights law in enhancing victims’ rights in peace operations
Luncheon Meeting by Vito Todeschini
Under international humanitarian law (IHL), the perpetration of war crimes entails the obligation for the responsible State to make reparations to victims. However, individuals can only file a claim against a foreign State via their own government. Although bestowing on victims a substantive right to reparation, IHL envisages no individual remedy against States’ unwillingness to comply with this obligation. Under human rights law (HRL), the right to a remedy against violations is crucial. It is enshrined in several international and regional human right instruments and treaty bodies’ jurisprudence has considerably extended the reach of this right, especially focusing on the need for a remedy to be effective and not theoretical.
The paper’s main argument is that HRL may supplement IHL with regard to the right to a remedy in armed conflicts. In this respect, special attention is paid to the context of peace operations. Rather than just allowing individuals to seek redress for violations of human rights treaties, this interpretation reads the interplay as prescribing an obligation on States to create remedies for IHL violations in their domestic systems. The paper assumes that in this area complementarity, not conflict marks the relationship between the two legal frameworks.
Overall, the aim of the paper is to show that HRL may be a way for directly enforcing IHL at the domestic level, with particular reference to the context of peace operations. The ultimate purpose is providing victims of war crimes with the possibility to seek redress in the domestic courts of troop-contributing States for IHL violations committed by multinational forces.
Location
Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam
Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Room A009