THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW: AN APPRAISAL

Abstract

This paper assessed the historical evolution of International Humanitarian
Law (IHL) as a compendium of codes of warfare. Using the doctrinal legal
research method, the researcher found that the formal idea of an International
Humanitarian Law was only codified via the 1977 Additional Protocols to the
Geneva Conventions. It was equally revealed that while many of the
provisions of the Protocols remained vague and contested, with their status
and the humanitarian vision of the law they outlined being uncertain for some
time, it was only at the end of the 20th century that international lawyers,
following the lead of human rights organizations declared Additional Protocol
I to be authoritative and the law of war to be truly humanitarian. It was
concluded that International Humanitarian Law is not simply a historical code,
managed by States and promoted by the International Committee of the Red
Cross, but rather a serious area of International Law that has a significant
nexus with International Criminal law and which State parties have an
obligation to see to its enforcement, failing which the machinery of
International Criminal Tribunals or the United Nations Security Council will
be activated to enforce punishment. It was recommended inter alia that
developing states should not only ratify these Conventions and Protocols but
should further take steps to domesticate them especially in view of the fact that
they have become part of Customary International Law.