Complementarity between the ICRC and the United Nations and international humanitarian law and international human rights law, 1948–1968

Abstract

This article shows that between the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the Tehran conference in 1968, international human rights law and international humanitarian law and their respective guardian institutions, the United Nations (UN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), were not so conceptually far apart as is sometimes suggested. Its purpose is to give further legitimacy to the role of human rights law in armed conflict and show that cooperation between the UN and the ICRC has a long history.

Operations of power in autonomous weapon systems: ethical conditions and socio-political prospects

“…At the same time, the ICRC has emerged as the key humanitarian actor-in particular 'humanitarian expert' (Mathur 2017, p.19)-first and foremost driven by its guardianship of the Geneva Laws or IHL (Forsythe 2005, p.13;Mathur 2011Mathur , pp.182, 2017. It also possesses legal expertise in the field of IHL and IHRL, the progressive convergence of which has also entailed the convergence of their respective 'guardian institutions', namely the ICRC and the UN (Fortin 2012). Diplomatic facilitation of the proban movement by the ICRC is thus of particular importance (ICRC 2016).…”

“…Campaigners acknowledge that it has been a 20-year practice of meaningful (I)NGO participation in such sessions (CSKR, n.d.). The history of the ICRC and the UN working together is even more deeply rooted (Fortin 2012). To clarify the position by the ICRC: it has underlined the importance of human responsibility over decisions to kill, thereby granting diplomatic support to the pro-ban movement within the UN (ICRC 2016).…”