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Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

First Page

249

Abstract

This article explores the role of regional human rights courts in internal armed conflicts and asks the question: How have regional human rights courts contributed to the development of and interplay between, international humanitarian and international human rights law in internal armed conflicts? In order to address this question, I have first set forth a brief discussion of the laws of war ("LOW") as they pertain to internal armed conflict. This discussion will establish the framework for a discussion of the interplay between International Humanitarian Law ("IHL") and International Human Rights ("IHR") and, more specifically, why issues of convergence arise with regard to these two bodies of law. Next, I have examined the issue of convergence by looking at the approach taken by the International Court of Justice ("ICY'). Specifically, I have examined the ICJ's approach in both the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons ("Nuclear Weapons Opinion'") and the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ("Wall Opinion"). I then compared the ICJ's approach to the approach taken by regional courts in addressing human rights violations during internal armed conflict with a focus on the European Court of Human Rights' ("ECtHR") opinion in the Isaveya cases, the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights' ("IAComHR") decision in the Abella case, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' ("IACtHR") decisions in the Las Palmeras and Bamaca Velasquez cases. These cases provide a framework to examine the contribution that regional courts have made in developing a coherent jurisprudence on this issue. Of course, if the regional court decisions are, in fact, narrow textual decisions then their overall contribution to the jurisprudence on this issue is limited. This article examines the implications of these decisions regarding the relationship between IHL and IHR, the challenges that these decisions pose to the current understandings of the scope of each area of law, and what this all may mean for the future of laws governing internal armed conflicts.

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