The Protection of Access to Food for Civilians under International Humanitarian Law: Acts Constituting War Crimes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/tahrj.v14.5483Keywords:
Human Right to Food, Food Security, Armed Conflict, International Humanitarian Law, Civilian Population, War Crimes, JusticiabilityAbstract
The objective of this paper is to examine the specific provisions, within the framework of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), that protect the human right to food of the civilian population and to observe to what extent the protection of access to food is an issue taken into account by IHL during the development of an armed conflict. Answering these questions requires a detailed analysis of this branch of international law, in order to identify the specific rules of IHL that aim, directly or indirectly, to ensure that civilians do not see denied their access to food during the armed conflict, whether international or non-international. In many armed conflicts, a greater number of civilians die from food deprivation than as a direct result of hostilities. In this sense, the Statute of the International Criminal Court criminalizes those acts that, during the armed conflict, violate IHL prohibitions related to food issues, thus we will also mention them, with the aim of clarifying the possible individual criminal responsibility attributed to those who carry out such acts.
The scientific method that has been used in this work is the legal-sociological method, insofar as it is the one that we consider most appropriate for the multidisciplinary approach, always from the legal point of view, regarding the understanding of the rules, the lack of them, their effectiveness, their rationale, etc. This method is based on the idea that law cannot be studied as an isolated domain but must be analysed as part of social reality. The elaboration of this work, with a multidisciplinary object, has also required the use of several methodological techniques, such as social and legal analysis, legal deduction and induction, description and interdisciplinarity.
References
ALSTON, P. (1984). “International Law and the Human Right to Food”, in Alston, P. and Tomasevski, K. (Eds.), The Right to Food, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Hague.
CASSESE, A. (1984). “The Geneva Protocols of 1977 on the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict and Customary International Law”, Pacific Basin Law Journal, 3(1-2), 1984.
CIJ, Activités militaires et paramilitaires au Nicaragua et contre celui-ci (Nicaragua c. Etats-Unis d’Amérique), Arrêt du 27 juin 1986, para. 2018.
CUSTOMARY IHL: Rule 1, “The Principle of Distinction between Civilians and Combatants”; Rule 7, “The Principle of Distinction between Civilian Objects and Military Objectives”.
DEFALCO, R.C. (2017). Conceptualizing Famine as a Subject of International Criminal Justice: Towards a Modality-Based Approach, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2017.
DUPUY, P.M. (1997). “Analysis of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 8 July 1996 on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons”, in Fernández Sánchez, P.A. (Coord.), La licitud del uso de las armas nucleares en los conflictos armados, University of Huelva, Spanish Red Cross, Ministry of Defence, Seville, pp.87-100.
ELVER, H. (2017). Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, contained in the General Assembly Resolution (A / 72/188), of July 21, 2017, Seventy-second sesión, Item 73 (b) of the provisional agenda, p. 4
FAO (2016). “Peace and food security - Investing in resilience to sustain rural livelihoods amid conflict”, Rome, p.2.
FAO (2019). “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019, Safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns”, Rome, p. 10.
FERNÁNDEZ SÁNCHEZ, P.A. (2007). “Naturaleza jurídica de la jurisdicción universal”, in Anuario Hispano-Luso-Americano de derecho internacional, Nº 18, pp. 333-381.
FERNÁNDEZ SÁNCHEZ, P.A. (1995). “Soberanía del Estado y Derecho Internacional en situaciones de emergencia humanitaria”, in El Derecho de Injerencia, III Jomadas de Derecho Internacional Humanitario, Cruz Roja Española/Universidad de Sevilla/Asociación para las Naciones Unidas en Sevilla, Sevilla, p.37.
GAGGIOLI, G. (2017). “El Uso de la Fuerza en los Conflictos Armados. Interacción entre los Paradigmas de la Conducción de Hostilidades y del Mantenimiento del Orden”, Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja, Ginebra, pp.9-11.
GILES CARNERO, R. (1997). De la asistencia a la injerencia humanitaria: la práctica reciente del Consejo de Seguridad, Cruz Roja Española en Huelva, Universidad de Huelva, p.46.
HENCKAERTS, J.M., and Doswald-Beck, L. (2007). “El derecho internacional humanitario consuetudinario”, Vol.1, Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja, Buenos Aires, pp. 2017-211. https://doi.org/10.22201/iij.24487872e.2007.7.208
HUTTER, S. (2019). “Starvation in Armed Conflicts: An Analysis Based on the Right to Food”, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Volume 17, Issue 4, pp. 723-752. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqz056
ICRC (1948). Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross on its activities during the Second World War, Part IV, vol. III, Geneva, pp. 359-533.
ICRC (1958). Comment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Article 23, Convention IV.
ICRC (1987). Comment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Additional Protocol I, Article 54, para. 1, section 2089.
ICRC (1987). Comment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Additional Protocol I, Article 35, Section 2805.
ICRC (1987). Comment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Additional Protocol II, Article 14, section 4796.
ICRC (2016). Comment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva Convention I, Article 3, Section 782.
ICRC, IHL DATABASE Customary IHL, Practice Relating to Rule 53. Starvation as a Method of Warfare, Available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule53. Accessed: 14 April 2020.
ICRC (2001). Statement made by ICRC to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-seventh session on agenda item 10. Reference found in: General Assembly (2001). UN.Doc. A/56/210, 23 July 2001, The right to food, para. 37-40, available at: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/BF212836491D592685256AE60074C35E. Accessed: 13 April 2020.
ICTY, Case No.: IT-94-1-A, 2 october 1995, Prosecutor v. Du[Ko Tadi], Decision on the defence motion for interlocutory appeal on jurisdiction, para.94.
ICTY, Case No.: IT-96-21-T, 16 November 1998, Prosecutor v. Zejnil Delali], Judgement, para. 193.
ICTY, Case No.: IT-97-25-T, 15 March 2002, Prosecutor v. Milorad Krnojelac, Trial Chamber II, Judgment, para.499.
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (2002). “Elements of Crimes”, PrintPartners Ipskamp, The Hague.
KRACHT, U. (2003). “Human Rights and humanitarian action: the right to food in armed conflict”, in Bergsmo, M., (Ed), Human Rights and Criminal Justice for the Downtrodden: Essays in Honour of Asbjørn Eide, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/Boston, pp. 261-290.
LÓPEZ-ALMANSA BEAUS, E. (2006). “Crisis alimentarias y Derecho Internacional Humanitario”, in Gutiérrez Espada, C., and Ramón Chornet, C. (Eds.), Uso de la fuerza y protección de los Derechos Humanos en un nuevo orden internacional, Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, p.255
LOWE V. and Tzanakopoulos A. (2011). “Humanitarian Intervention”, Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law MPIL, Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law under the direction of Rüdiger Wolfrum.
PEJIC, J. (2001). “The right to food in situations of armed conflict: The legal framework”, International Review of the Red Cross, vol. 83, no 844, pp.1097-1109.
PINSTRUP-ANDERSEN, P., and Shimokawa, S. (2008). “Do poverty and poor health and nutrition increase the risk of armed conflict onset?”, Food Policy, 33(6), pp. 514-520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2008.05.003
RAMÓN CHORNET, C. (2005). “Demasiado tarde para la población civil. El cometido del Derecho internacional humanitario”, in Gutiérrez Espada, C. (Coord.), Caflisch, L. (Coord.), Bermejo García, R., (Coord.), Díez-Hochleitner Rodríguez, J. (Coord.), El Derecho Internacional: normas, hechos y valores. Liber Amicorum José Antonio Pastor Ridruejo, Servicio de publicaciones de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, pp.287-299.
RODRÍGUEZ DE TABORDA, C. (2013). “El impacto de los conflictos armados en la Seguridad Alimentaria”, ReCordip, vol. 1, Nº 2, p.2.
THAN, C., Shorts, E. (2003). International Criminal Law and Human Rights, 1st Ed., London: Sweet& Maxwell, p.90.
UN Doc. S/RES/770 (1992), of 13 de august 1992, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/13.suppl.1
UN Doc. S/RES/787 (1992), November 16, para.7.
UN Doc. A/56/210, 23 July 2001, Note by the Secretary-General **, Preliminary report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, para. 46.
UN Doc. Resolution 2625 (XXV), October 24, 1970, Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, p.6.
UN Doc. S/RES/764 (1992) of 13 de July 1992, para. 10.
UN Doc. S/RES/794 (1992), of 3 December 1992, paragraphs 8 and 10.
UN Doc. S/RES/2417 (2018), 24 May 2018, para.5 and para.6.
UN. Doc. Economic and Social Council, E /CN.4/ 2001/53, 7 February 2001, para. 74.
WORLD Peace Foundation (2019). “The Crime of Starvation and Methods of Prosecution and Accountability”, Policy Paper #1, Global Rights Compliance (GRC) and the World Peace Foundation (WPF), Netherlands.
ZIEGLER, J. et al. (2011). “The Right to Food in Situations of Armed Conflict”, in Ziegler, J., Golay, C., Mahon, C., Way, S.A. (Coords.), The Fight for the Right to Food, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 101-102. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299337_5