Referring to these contexts, the New York Times posted an article on 26 October 2017 that reported the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) … In Iraq and Syria, several years of intense, devastating violence has taken countless lives, destroyed essential infrastructure and homes, ruined services and livelihoods and separated families.

The rules must be respected by all of the parties to armed conflict at all times and with no exceptions.

Finally, they remind us that nothing would justify an unlawful response to exceptional behaviour. They note that the law contains robust rules: persons hors de combat-including enemy fighters who have become defenceless-must be protected. Thomas de Saint Maurice and David Tuck build upon this, recalling that international humanitarian law is specifically designed to regulate exceptional circumstances.

Recently, the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed its concern about the risks of rhetoric that suggests there are circumstances in which a ‘ particular adversary … can be treated “as if humanitarian law doesn’t apply”’.

Right to life in armed conflict ihl