Armed Conflicts

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This paper will consider the consequences of warfare on vulnerable groups in the light of the international humanitarian law. It is a study that asks the question what are the effects of armed conflicts on human rights? This observation reviews the violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law during wars and armed conflicts over the previous and recent years and through several cases. The Battle of Solferino was the direct cause to establish the international humanitarian law. Moreover, armed conflicts continue to be a fundamental source in developing the principles for the confirmation affecting this law. In this paper, I argue that whether at the international level or the domestic level, the facts proved that contemporary …show more content…

Previously, there were no international agreements that prevent violence against women. Notwithstanding the enormous collection of universal documents on international human rights and humanitarian law, even international conventions on women's rights has left a vast void in this section. In this context, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the First Protocol provided a set of articles that emphasized the need to protect women from sexual violence during armed conflict. However, the First Protocol did not come with anything new, as the protection provided is the same as set in the Fourth Convention. The ICRC and the 32nd International Conferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent have repeatedly stressed that the situation of women in armed conflicts puts the international humanitarian law under extraordinary challenges. In 1993 it was observed that the final declaration of the International Conference for the protection of victims of war - increasingly apparent in the number of acts of sexual violence, in particular against women and children - stressing at the same time that "these actions represent a grave violation of the international humanitarian law. " Given the serious and tragic effects suffered by victims of rape, the international community raised awareness of the importance of punishment for the crime of rape and sexual violence. International courts incorporated to prosecute war criminals in both Yugoslavia and Rwanda and claimed that rape is an act against humanity. Even the Statute of the International Criminal Court ratified by the Rome Conference (1998), includes a provision permitting the court to look at sexual violence crimes as violations of human