a) The key IHL provisions that are covered in the instrument
The Additional Protocols include rules especially designed to protect both civilians and combatants.
They stipulate that: * combatants must not pose as civilians * indiscriminate attacks are not allowed * acts of violence - or threats to commit them - whose primary purpose is to spread terror are prohibited * objects indispensable to the survival of communities must not be destroyed
Strengthen the obligation to provide civilians with food, water and other essentials.
Those who are not, or no longer, taking part in an armed conflict must be protected, respected and treated humanely. The Additional Protocols say that: * All wounded and sick people, both civilian and military, must be collected and cared for, without discrimination. * Women and children must be respected and protected from any form of indecent assault. * Children and adolescents must be protected from the effects of war. They must not be allowed to take part in hostilities. * Members of families separated by conflict should be reunited and they should be able to exchange personal messages. They also have the right to be informed of what has happened to missing relatives.
The Additional Protocols say that: * Suffering inflicted on an opponent must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve a legitimate military objective. * Combatants no longer capable of fighting may not be attacked. * In an international conflict, captured combatants must be presumed to be prisoners of war, and are therefore entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. * Prisoners of war who cannot be cared for must be set free
Subsequently;
Article 51 and 54 states
Outlaw indiscriminate attack on civilian population and destruction of food, water and other materials needed for survival. Indiscriminate attacks include directly attacking civilians (non-military) targets, but also using technology such as biological weapons and land mines whose scope of destruction cannot be limited. A total war that does not distinguish between civilians and military targets is considered a war crime.
Article 56 and 53 states
Outlaw attacks on dams, dikes, nuclear generating stations and places of worship.
Article 76, 15 and 79 states
Provide special protection for women, children, and medical personnel and provide measure of protection for journalists.
Article 77 states
Forbids conscription of children under age 15 into the armed forces. It does allow, however for persons under the age of 15 to participate voluntarily.
Article 43 and 44 state
Clarifying the military status of members of guerilla forces. Combatants and prisoners of war status is granted to members of dissident forces when under the command of a central authority. Such combatants cannot concede their allegiance.
Article 36 states
Bans weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, as well as means of warfare that causes widespread long term, and severe damage to the natural environment.
Article 85 states
States it’s a war crime to use one of the protective emblems recognized by the Geneva conventions to deceive the opposing forces.
Article 17 and 81 states
Authorizes the ICRC and other international humanitarian organizations to provide assistance to victims. b) Implementation and enforcement mechanism and institutional arrangement * The four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I confer on the ICRC a specific mandate to act in the event of international armed conflict. In particular, the ICRC has the right to visit prisoners of war and civilian internees. The Conventions also give the ICRC a broad right of initiative. * In non-international armed conflicts, the ICRC enjoys a right of humanitarian initiative recognized by the international community and enshrined in Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions. * In the event of internal disturbances and tensions, and in any other situation that warrants humanitarian action, the ICRC also enjoys a right of initiative, which is recognized in the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Thus, wherever international humanitarian law does not apply, the ICRC may offer its services to governments without that offer constituting interference in the internal affairs of the State concerned. * The ICRC welcomed both the development of international humanitarian law through the adoption of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the establishment of the obligation to exercise universal jurisdiction against grave breaches found therein, as a means to deal with the challenge of impunity for war crimes. * Almost five decades later, the end of the Cold War and new conflicts in Europe and Africa, which caused hundreds of thousands of civilian victims, convinced the Security Council of the United Nations to consider the necessity of establishing ad hoc international criminal tribunals once more. * The armed conflict in the Balkans led the UN to set up an international criminal tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, to try those accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Most famous among the accused was the former president of Yugoslavia, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic. * Soon after, the UN also established a tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, to punish violations of IHL and other international crimes committed in Rwanda in the early 1990s. * Since then, special courts have also been set up to prosecute domestic and international crimes. Examples of such mixed tribunals can be found in Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and most recently in Lebanon. * These international (and mixed) criminal tribunals may contribute to the development and clarification of international humanitarian law and human rights law. They may strengthen respect for IHL by providing justice for victims and may also act as a deterrent in future armed conflicts and, by establishing the truth of what happened during a conflict, contribute to reconciliation and reconstruction. * The decision by the international community in 1998 to establish the International Criminal Court also attempted to address these concerns, providing a means for taking up cases that States are unable or unwilling to prosecute.