7. The Right To Life And The Relationship Between Human Rights And Humanitarian Law

This chapter addresses namely the right to life in light of the relationship between human rights and humanitarian law, in which reinforcement of the protection of the individual has been sought through a variety of techniques, including by highlighting the complementarity of human rights and humanitarian law norms and mechanisms. The interplay between human rights and humanitarian law has been debated at length, although only relatively recently. Apart from the actual conventions themselves, certain developments within the international legal system have ensured the growing convergence of these two fields in terms of the scope of their application ratione loci and ratione personae . The continuing application of human rights in time of armed conflict has now been fully corroborated by judicial decisions, state practice, although with some notable exceptions, and the practice of IOs, human rights bodies and NGOs. Keywords: armed conflict; human rights; international humanitarian law; international legal system