Protecting Civilians During the Fight Against Transnational Terrorism

Download or read book Protecting Civilians During the Fight Against Transnational Terrorism written by Karinne (Coombes) Lantz and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This article examines how international humanitarian law (IHL) may apply to protect innocent civilians during the fight against transnational terrorism. To achieve the goal of allowing states to protect their populations from the threat of terrorism while ensuring respect for the rule of law and the rights of individuals, it is argued that, although IHL should remain applicable only to armed conflicts, it must evolve so that it clearly applies to “transnational” armed conflicts (that is, armed conflicts between State A and a non-State actor based in State B, where State A uses force in the territory of State B without State B's consent). Rather than recognizing a new third category of armed conflict to cover these situations, it is argued that non-international armed conflicts should be understood as a residual category that regulates all armed conflicts to which the parties are not only states and/or their agents.