HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND HUMANITARIAN LAW: BETWEEN COMPLEMENTARITY AND CONTRADICTION
HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND HUMANITARIAN LAW: BETWEEN COMPLEMENTARITY AND CONTRADICTION

Summary/Abstract: International human rights law and international humanitarian law are two specialized areas of the public international law, which exist as distinct legal branches. These legal branches have a different origin and legal basis, but a common humanist ideal, and consequently areas of overlap in practice. Both legal regimes share the responsibility to protect human beings’ rights; Humanitarian law in time of armed conflict, human rights law in peacetime and in wartime as well. Because of this, in practice there is sometimes concurrent application of the legal norms of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. At the same time, there are also differences between these two legal regimes that arise from the different circumstances which are relevant in a state of peace and in state of war. Hence, regarding this relationship, many relevant questions arise: Whether these legal branches are mutually exclusive? Under what circumstances does humanitarian law apply, and how does this differ from the applicability of human rights law? Which are the areas of overlap? What are the practical consequences of the legal issues resulting from parallel application of the two legal frameworks?

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