International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law

International humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) form complementary regimes that seek to protect individuals in times of peace and armed conflict. IHL, centred on the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, governs the conduct of hostilities, delineates the status of combatants and non-combatants, and imposes strict limits on weapons and tactics. IHRL, rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and codified in covenants such as the ICCPR and ICESCR, guarantees a broad array of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights at all times. Their interplay is managed through doctrines of lex specialis, norm conflict and systemic integration, while enforcement depends on treaty bodies, special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and international criminal tribunals. Together these bodies underpin a global framework that regulates state and non-state behaviour, advances accountability for war crimes and atrocity crimes, and underlines the indivisibility and universality of human dignity.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have traced how liberal norms and human security principles evolve through flexible, voluntary coalitions rather than binding multilateral treaties. One review shows that since the Cold War, partnerships among states, international organisations and civil society have reshaped rule-making in domains such as gender equality, environmental protection and the protection of civilians. Mapping power shifts, it finds that individual empowerment and rising attention to human security will continue to drive norm development in conflict prevention and post-crisis reconstruction. Another analysis of green recovery efforts demonstrates how plurilateral institutions – notably the G7, G20 and BRICS – are funding proportionally more clean stimulus measures amid the COVID-19 crisis. It argues that the G7’s emerging role as a “norm entrepreneur” holds promise for diffusing a Global Green New Deal, underscoring the wider impact of summit institutions on normative innovation across issue areas.

International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in international humanitarian and human rights law across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

International humanitarian law (IHL): A body of treaty and customary rules governing the conduct of armed conflict and the protection of victims.

International human rights law (IHRL): Universal legal norms that define and protect individual and collective rights in peacetime and armed conflict.

Lex specialis: A principle directing that the more specific legal regime (IHL) should govern conduct over a more general regime (IHRL) in situations of armed conflict.

Norm ambiguity: The vagueness of treaty language that allows multiple interpretations, enabling flexible application but risking inconsistent implementation.

Global norm cascade: The rapid spread of a norm among actors after a tipping-point of acceptance is reached, often through peer learning and demonstration effects.

Norm conflict: A situation where obligations under one normative framework (e.g. peacekeeping) contradict obligations under another (e.g. criminal accountability).

References

1. Implementation in practice: The use of force to protect civilians in United Nations peacekeeping. European Journal of International Relations (2018).
2. Criminal accountability at what cost? Norm conflict, UN peace operations and the International Criminal Court. European Journal of International Relations (2020).
3. Why International Organizations Commit to Liberal Norms. International Studies Quarterly (2020).
4. Global governance and the Global Green New Deal: the G7’s role. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2022).
5. The Development of IHL by Human Rights Bodies.