Contemporary Challenges Facing International Humanitarian Law

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A substantial argument which is increasingly becoming a matter of contention in the event of contemporary armed conflict is the applicability of civilian protection during armed conflict that involves non-state actors. This paper shall discuss the contemporary challenges facing international humanitarian law with regards to civilian protection during such armed conflict. It will concentrate on the situation in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks of 2001. The aim of the paper will be to analyze the reasons why civilians are neglected during conflicts and how the different actors involved in the conflicts influence international humanitarian law. This purpose is guided with the need to understand why most of the casualties of modern conflicts are mainly civilians and not soldiers.
The paper will examine the Afghanistan conflict using the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two Additional Protocols of 1977. As a general principle, civilians are entitled to protected status under international humanitarian law and may not be attacked. However, the laws of war recognize that some civilians are more innocent and deserving of protection than others and that those who take a direct part in hostilities during an armed conflict forfeit their protected status and may be attacked1. However, military officers are under an obligation to take all possible actions to protect a civilian population2. This is because during an armed conflict, the protection of civilians outweighs any collateral military objectives.
United States invasion of Afghanistan
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon in Washington D.C.3, the U.S. government deployed its troops to Afghanistan in Octo...

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...hgate Publishing.
International Committee of the Red Cross; Ed. Pictet, J. (1960). The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949: Geneva convention for the amelioration of the condition of wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea. International Committee of the Red Cross.
McCoubrey, H. (1998). International humanitarian law: modern developments in the limitation of warfare. Dartmouth: Ashgate Publishing.
Rogers, P. (2004). A War on Terror: Afghanistan and After. USA: Pluto Press.
Steiner, H., Alston, P.. Goodman (2008). International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals : Text and Materials. UK: Oxford University Press.
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Afghanistan: Annual Report 2013, Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, February 2014, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/52f884634.html [accessed 12 February 2014].

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