Preventing the Emasculation of Warfare: Halting the Expansion of Human Rights Law into Armed Conflict
Abstract
The United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 15 years after President Jimmy Carter signed it and 26 years after the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted it. The reluctance to join the ICCPR was partly rooted in fears that costs to U.S. sovereignty would be too high. When it eventually ratified the ICCPR in 1992, the United States entered several reservations, declarations, and understandings to ensure that its obligations under the ICCPR would not conflict with U.S. domestic law. Fears that ratifying the ICCPR would threaten American institutions and practices at home were never realized. However, a growing trend toward expanding the reach of international human rights law into armed conflict threatens to assault U.S. sovereignty in a way that few could have envisioned. Key areas of conflict between human rights law and humanitarian law include the use of force, detention of enemy prisoners of war, internment of civilians, security restrictions imposed on civilian populations, and occupation. If this trend toward expansion continues unchecked, military commanders and soldiers will face an exceedingly complex set of rules for conducting military operations. This overregulation of the battlefield may prolong conflict rather than facilitate a quick end to it. The United States needs to object to this expansion and take the lead in influencing the international community to join in preserving the importance of state sovereignty and consent in international humanitarian law. Simultaneously, it must become a "persistent objector" to preclude becoming bound to apply human rights norms in armed conflict. Furthermore, the United States needs to vigorously pursue the issue of expansion with the Human Rights Committee, the monitoring body of the ICCPR, and capitalize on the authority of the U.N. Security Council to direct in its resolutions that humanitarian law alone regulates armed conflicts and occupations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA519517
Entities
People
- Michelle A. Hansen
Organizations
- The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School