Armed Conflicts and the Environment: Complementing the Laws of Armed Conflict with Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law PDF
Preview Armed Conflicts and the Environment: Complementing the Laws of Armed Conflict with Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law
Anne Dienelt Armed Conflicts and the Environment Complementing the Laws of Armed Conflict with Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law fl Armed Con icts and the Environment Anne Dienelt fl Armed Con icts and the Environment fl Complementing the Laws of Armed Con ict with Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law AnneDienelt FacultyofLaw/InstituteforInternationalAffairs UniversityofHamburg Hamburg,Germany ISBN978-3-030-99338-2 ISBN978-3-030-99339-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99339-9 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNatureSwitzerland AG2022 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Carl-Gustav Jung, 1875–1961 Foreword by Marja Lehto1 Throughoutthehistoryofeffortstoregulatewarfare,thefocushasbeenonhuman- itarian protection. The extensive body of international humanitarian law is not primarilyconcernedwiththeenvironment,andtherulesprovidingdirectprotection to the environment are few and substantially limited. Important steps to limit wartime environmental harm have been taken but only after particularly shocking events, such as the mass spreading of herbicides during the Vietnam War, which triggered in the 1970s the adoption of the existing treaty provisions in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions and the ENMOD Convention. These pro- visions are significant in that they provide direct protection to the environment during armed conflict. Furthermore, the need to protect the environment in and of itselfisrecognizedinAdditionalProtocolI.Atthesametime,theseearlyprovisions setanimpracticablyhighthresholdforprohibitedaction. While protection of the environment from the dangers of war is thus not a new concern,ithasbeenaddressedsporadically.Thelegaldevelopmentswithregardto conflict-relatedenvironmentalharmanditspreventionandremediationhavelargely followedtheirownlogicwithlittleconnectiontotheparallelspectaculargrowthof international environmental law. Peacetime international law protections for the environment, in their turn, have been developed with scant regard for conflict situations. While both the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and the 1992 Rio Declara- tion mention the need to address conflict-related environmental harm, most of the existing multilateral environmental agreements are silent about this aspect. Com- pared to the important developments that have taken place with regard to the “greening”ofinternationalhumanrightslaw,withtherecognitionofanindependent humanrighttoahealthyandsustainableenvironmentin2021asthelateststep,there is much more uncertainty regarding the interconnections between international 1MemberoftheInternationalLawCommissionandSpecialRapporteurforthetopic“Protectionof theenvironmentinrelationtoarmedconflicts”since2017. vii viii ForewordbyMarjaLehto environmentallawandthelawofarmedconflict.Thecurrenttreatisethusdealswith aparticularlycomplexandtopicalsubject. Theunderstandingoftheenvironmentalimpactofarmedconflictshasdeveloped considerablyinrecentdecades,inparticularasaresultofpost-conflictenvironmen- talassessmentsconductedbytheUNEnvironmentalProgrammeandothersandthe relatedresearch.Connectionsbetweenglobalenvironmentalthreatssuchasclimate change and biodiversity loss, on the one hand, and international security, on the other, have been increasingly recognized. All this has raised an interest in the strengthening of the legal protections for the environment in relation to armed conflicts.Mostimportantly,theInternationalCommitteeoftheRedCrosslaunched its updated Guidelines for the Protection of the Natural Environment in 2020. The International Law Commission adopted on first reading a set of draft principles on thetopic“Protectionoftheenvironmentinrelationtoarmedconflictsin2019.” Both initiatives adopt a more holistic approach to the environmental protection andconflictsthanwhatusedtobethecasebefore.TheICRCGuidelinesrevealthe capacity of many provisions originally crafted for the protection of civilians and civilianobjectstoalsoprovidegeneralorindirectprotectiontotheenvironment.A distinctivefeatureoftheILCdraftprinciples,ontheirpart,istheirtemporalscope, which covers the pre-conflict and post-conflict phases in addition to situations of armedconflict.Closelyrelatedtothisbroadscope,theworkalsodrawsoninterna- tional environmental law and human rights law, in addition to the law of armed conflict.Theprimaryobjectiveofthese,aswellasotherrecentinitiativesseekingto enhancetheprotectionoftheenvironmentinrelationtoarmedconflicts,istoclarify andinterpretexistinginternationallegal rules.While theidea ofthe“FifthGeneva Convention”fortheprotectionoftheenvironmenthasbeenraisedfromtimetotime, ithasnotfallenonafertileground. Dr.Dienelt’sbookmakesanotablecontributiontothecurrentdebatesonhowthe protectionoftheenvironmentinrelationtoarmedconflictscanbeenhancedwithin the existing framework of international law. It seeks to overcome the existing fragmentation within and between the three fields of law most closely related to the topic at issue: the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and international environmental law. Dr. Dienelt is to be commended for her thorough analysis of these three fields of law. The book covers a large number of relevant issuesfromthedistinctionbetweentheanthropocentricandecocentricapproachesto the protection of the environment, the role of the law of armed conflict as lex specialis in situations of armed conflict, and the continued application of interna- tional human rights law and environmental law throughout the conflict cycle to implementationandcompliance.Itgivesaclearpictureofthepotentialaswellasof the gaps and challenges of each of these three areas of international law from the pointofviewofstrengtheningtheprotectionoftheenvironmentinrelationtoarmed conflicts. One interestingobservation isthat allthree areas havetheirorigin inananthro- pocentric approach and remain, to different degrees, anthropocentric. While ecocentric motivations have been adopted later on, and obviously play a major role in international environmental law, “this does not contradict or exclude ForewordbyMarjaLehto ix anthropocentrism.Infact,anthropocentrismandecocentrisminthisregardgohand inhand,”asDr.Dieneltconcludes.Inhumanrightslaw,ithasbeenlongrecognized that the enjoyment of a number of human rights, to begin with the right to life, is dependent on environmental conditions. As far as the law of armed conflict is concerned,itfollowsthattheanthropocentric approachinherenttothisarea oflaw doesnotcontradictthepromotionofenvironmentalprotectiongoals. It seems nevertheless that the confrontation of the two approaches has its most fervent advocates within the law of armed conflict. One example is the continuing controversyregardingtheciviliannatureoftheenvironment.TheICRCGuidelines, as well as the Commission’s draft principles, view the natural environment as inherentlycivilianinnature.Ratherthan“humanizingthenature,”thisunderstand- ingextendstotheenvironmenttheprotectionsofthelawofarmedconflictapplica- ble to civilian objects. These include the principles of distinction, proportionality, andprecautionand,mostimportantly,theimmunityfromattackunlessaparticular locationhasbecomeamilitaryobjective.Whiletheseprovisionsareconditional,and do not provide absolute protection, their potential becomes obvious if the basic assumption of the natural environment as civilian is abandoned. The alternative understanding, often presented as “anthropocentric,” regards the natural environ- mentinarmedconflictsasentitledtoprotectiononlytotheextentciviliansdepend on it for their health and survival. The environment, according to this view, is a collection of separate elements disconnected from each other, some of which are entitledtoprotectionascivilianobjects,somearemilitaryobjectives,andothersare neither of the two. Needless to say, the prospects for environmental protection are therebyconsiderablyweakened,asaretheconstraintsformilitaryaction. A central theme of Dr. Dienelt’s book is the search for a model of multilayered protection for the environment from the dangers of war. The three “incompatible areas of international law,” as she points out, reveal on closer study a number of commonfeatures,whichmakeitpossibletoanalyzetheirinteractioninsituationsof armed conflict. She furthermore presents a tentative model for how to deal with multilayeredprotection,regardingthedifferentrulesasmutuallysupportive.While international humanitarian law provides the specialized regime designed for situa- tionsofarmedconflict,otherrulescontinuetoplayarole,ashasbeenauthoritatively recognized,interalia,bytheInternationalCourtofJustice.Accordingtoarestrictive view,theframeworkthatthelawofthearmedconflictprovidesforarmedconflicts operates to the exclusion of other rules. It is nevertheless widely agreed that the notion of lex specialis cannot apply to the general relationship between the law of armed conflict and other fields of international law. The complementarity of the other rules law can only be determined in relation to particular norms. Such an exercise furthermore requires an overlap between the scope of application of the rulesconcerned,andthattheapplicationoftherulesresultsinoutcomesthatarenot onlydifferentbutconflictwitheachother.Moreover,lexspecialistendstoworkbest withinonespecificregime,andnotbetweenregimes.Thedebateonlexspecialishas in fact largely overshadowed the fact that there are other tools to resolve norm conflicts such as the principles of harmonization, systemic integration, or mutual supportiveness. As these principles are less developed than the traditional tools of x ForewordbyMarjaLehto treatyinterpretation,itmakesalotofsensetotesttheminnewcontexts.Thisiswhat thebookdoeswithgrace. The reader can be grateful to Dr. Dienelt for her thoughtful study, which raises importantquestionsanddefieseasyanswers. Helsinki,Finland MarjaLehto Acknowledgments This monograph examines the law as it stood, to the best of my knowledge, as of October11,2021,unlessotherwiseindicated(e.g.the27draftprinciplesonthetopic adoptedbytheILCinMay2022).Iwouldliketothankmyteacherandsupervisor, Prof.Dr.AndreasL.Paulus,JudgeattheBundesverfassungsgerichtandProfessorat Georg-August-Universitätin Germany, for his support and encouragementstarting inmyearlydaysasastudentandhiscontinuedguidanceandvaluablecommentsas thesupervisorofthisstudy.IamverygratefultoProf.Dr.MarkusKotzur,Professor at the University of Hamburg, for the very prompt provision of his report on the manuscript,andtoProf.Dr.Peter-TobiasStollaschairofthedefensecommittee. IamindebtedtoProf.Dr.StefanOeter,whohasalwaysmadetimetodiscussmy research,andinspiredandsupportedresearchvisitsandpresentationsatconferences. TheopportunitiestodiscussmyideasattheInstituteforInternationalAffairsofthe University of Hamburg with its members, researchers, and students represented valuableopportunities during thetime ofmydoctoral research;Iamgrateful toall participantsofthesemeetings. While conducting my doctoral research, I worked as an assistant to Prof. Dr. Georg Nolte, Prof. Sean Murphy, Ambassador Dr. Marie G. Jacobsson, as wellasAmbassadorDr.MarjaLehto,membersoftheUnitedNationsInternational LawCommission,overseveralsummersinGeneva.Thetimeanddiscussionswith them sharpened my legal thinking, and I am very grateful for their insights and support,evenbeyondmytimeattheCommission. Michèle Finck, Kathrin Kohoutek, Johann R. Leiß, Britta Sjöstedt, and Azin Tadjdini,mypartnersincrime:Thankyouforyourcommentsonnumerousaspects ofthismanuscriptandsolidarityamongdoctoralresearchers.Iamalsoverygrateful to Franziska Bachmann, Louisa Hadadi, and Sara K. Wissmann for their very valuablehelpinthefinalstageofpublication,toAmberR.Maggioforherthorough assistanceineditingthefinalmanuscript. I gratefully acknowledge the support received from the participants of several seminarsandworkshopsIhadthehonorandprivilegeofparticipatingin,including the comments received from JSD candidates and faculty at New York University xi
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