In addition, a large proportion of today's armed conflicts are non-international, and treaty-based international humanitarian law doesn't regulate them in sufficient detail. That is why it was necessary to determine which rules are part of customary law and therefore applicable to all parties to a conflict, regardless of their treaty obligations. As a result, victims of armed conflict, particularly those affected by non-international armed conflict, are not always fully protected by treaty law. It complements the protection provided for conflict victims by treaty law, and fills in certain gaps resulting from treaties not having been ratified by certain States or from treaty law lacking detailed rules on non-international armed conflict.Īlthough the 1949 Geneva Conventions have been universally ratified, for example, other treaties of international humanitarian law, such as the 1977 Additional Protocols or the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines, have not. Why is customary IHL important?Ĭustomary international humanitarian law is important because its rules, and compliance therewith, can reduce the human cost of armed conflict. There are already many treaties covering armed conflict. Today, the ICRC’s Customary IHL Database makes these rules and the commentaries thereto easily accessible and searchable. The study has contributed to identifying the common core of international humanitarian law binding on all parties to all armed conflicts. Before the study was published, no comprehensive written analysis and compilation of customary IHL rules existed. In the 1990s, at the request of the international community, the ICRC undertook an extensive study into current State practice in international humanitarian law in order to identify customary law in this area. Customary international humanitarian law is applicable universally – independently of the application of treaty law – and is based on extensive and virtually uniform State practice regarded as law.
It's the basic standard of conduct in armed conflict accepted by the world community. What is customary international humanitarian law?Ĭustomary international humanitarian law is a set of unwritten rules derived from a general, or common, practice which is acknowledged as law.
The ICRC's head of project for customary law, Els Debuf, explains why customary IHL is so important and why the ICRC’s on-line Customary IHL Database, now four years old, is a vital tool for all those working on issues related to armed conflict and IHL. The rules of customary international humanitarian law (IHL) improve the protection of victims of armed conflict, by complementing the safeguards provided by treaty law.
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