armed conflict article armed conflict news

Russia is a party to the Geneva Conventions and – for now at least – to the European Convention on Human Rights as well as to other international human rights treaties, says Tan. ‘That there is a war doesn’t mean people no longer have human rights, so violations must also be investigated and primarily by the country that has deployed its armed forces.’ This also applies to human rights violations. ‘What I show in my thesis is that under international humanitarian law states are obliged to investigate violations of that law,’ says Tan. ‘That there is war doesn’t mean people no longer have human rights’ - Floris Tan

Moreover, human rights only apply in peacetime it is claimed. For example, a frequent argument is that international humanitarian law does not create an obligation to investigate and that violations of human rights during armed conflict do not have to be investigated because that would be too demanding in times of war. According to Tan, states often hide behind ambiguity in the law to escape an awkward investigation.

Armed conflict article armed conflict news