![]() World War I Īrticle 23 of the 1907 Hague Convention states that "A belligerent is forbidden to compel the nationals of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country". Indian revolutionary Mahatma Gandhi had created the concept of human shield as a tool of resistance. 20th century The Barricade by the American artist George Bellows inspired by an incident in August 1914 where German soldiers used Belgian civilians as human shields. ![]() They say that the proximate shielding accusation has been used by States to cover-up war crimes against civilian populations and that human rights organizations frequently fail to question this charge which they claim is being improperly used to justify civilian deaths. Īuthors Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, elaborating on their book, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire, discuss "proximate shields", humans as shields merely due to proximity to belligerents and assert that this type has become "by far the most prominent type of shield in contemporary discourse". Law professor Adil Ahmad Haque states that involuntary shields "retain their legal and moral protection from intentional, unnecessary, and disproportionate harm." He argues against the position of the United States Department of Defense (as well as the United Kingdom and some scholars) that attackers may discount or disregard collateral harm in determining proportionality and states that these views are "legally baseless and morally unsound". ![]() But to argue that this absolves the other party from responsibility is to get both law and morality wrong." Īccording to law professor Eliav Lieblich, "Armed groups might be responsible for harm that they occasion to civilians under their control. Forcing non-combatants to serve as human shields is a war crime according to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, and the 1998 Rome Statute. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |