Environmental Protection In Armed Conflict: An International Law Perspective
Pavithra D, Assistant Professor, PRIST Deemed to be University, School of Law, Vallam, Thanjavur
ABSTRACT
A right to protect the environment in times of armed conflict has become a central and developing concern in international law. The paper focuses on the legal frameworks that regulate the protection of the environment during a war, and on the contributions of the UN and ICRC, of international treaties like the Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I and the Convention on the Modification of the International Law Applicable to Armies (ENMOD) and of customary international law for the protection of the environment during wars. The validity of key legal provisions are examined in detail, such as the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the UN General Assembly Resolutions, including GA Res. 56/4 (2001) and 77/104 (2022). These instruments are all foundational to managing environmental damage in the context of armed conflict, but have very different applicability and efficacy. The decades-long environmental effects of war are starkly illustrated in a case study of the Gulf War (1990-1991) and applied to the current Russia- Ukraine war. This section reviews the legal machinery used to respond to such injury: the UN Compensation Commission set up following the Gulf War, for example, and modern accountability systems in the wake of Ukraine. The paper also presents a comparative analysis of the different legal systems - international humanitarian law, environmental law, international criminal law and human rights law - and how each deals with environmental damage occurring during war in different ways, while highlighting overlaps, conflict and gaps between the various legal systems. The paper concludes that, although the environment is increasingly recognized by international law as a protected ‘silent victim’ of armed conflict, there are significant gaps in the current law, especially with respect to enforcement and accountability. It is therefore recommending a series of reforms; in particular, the adoption of an international crime of ‘ecocide’, more widespread ratification of key environmental and humanitarian treaties by all states, the binding ratification of the International Law Commission’s Draft Principles on the Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflicts (PERAC), and the creation of more effective and stringent enforcement mechanisms for environmental accountability during and after Armed Conflict.
