Public Law Studies Quarterly

The Approach of International Humanitarian Law to the Protection of Animals in Armed Conflict

Document Type : Article

Author

Aghil Mohammadi

Assistant professor of International Law, Public and International Law Department, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Shiraz University

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2023.356004.3277
Abstract
Animals have played an important role in armed conflicts since ancient times. Transporting supplies, soldiers and military and medical equipment, searching for wounded soldiers, damaging enemy positions, especially by detonating bombs attached to animals or their carcasses, are among the most important forms of using animals in conflict. Considering the increase in the use of animals, especially dolphins, by states to achieve military objectives in armed conflicts, it is necessary to know the standards and support frameworks regarding them. Therefore, this article, based on a descriptive-analytical method, answers the question, what approach has international humanitarian law adopted in this regard? This article concludes that due to the lack of specific rules in international humanitarian law on the ban on the use of animals as military purposes, it must be referred to the general humanitarian rules especially the articles of the first additional protocol to the Geneva conventions of 1949 to explain the legal system of the subject. By considering animals as a part of the environment and placing them in the category of special and protected objects under Article 54 of the said protocol, A support system can be considered for them. Of course, due to the special situation of animals compared to the human, the implementation of the principles of humanitarian rights, such as separation, proportionality, precautions in attack is faced with complications and ambiguities.

Keywords

Animal
Conflict
International Humanitarian Law
Environment
Object
Combatant
Prisoner of War
Subjects
  1. فارسی

الف) کتاب‌ها

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ب) مقالات

  1. حبیبی، همایون و رمضانی، صالحه (1393). وضعیت حقوقی سپرانسانی داوطلبانه در حقوق بشردوستانه بین‌المللی. پژوهش حقوق عمومی، 16 (45)، 77-103.
  2. راعی دهقی، هاجر و نجفی، جواد (1395). حفاظت از محیط زیست در قبال خسارات ناشی از درگیری مسلحانه. علوم محیطی، 14 (2)، 139-153.
  3. شریفی طرازکوهی، حسین و صیادنژاد، محمدحسین (1399). اِعمال اصول بنیادین حقوق بین‌الملل بشردوستانه بر تسلیحات کاملاً خودکار به‌عنوان ابزار نوین جنگی. مطالعات حقوق عمومی، 50 (2)، 575-551. doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2018.241907.1584
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ج) سایت‌های اینترنتی

  1. خبرآنلاین (1401). دلفین‌های قاتل نظامی؛ محافظان پایگاه‌های دریایی روسیه. مشاهده در تاریخ 15/10/1401. از: https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/1684725

 

 

  1. انگلیسی
  2. A) Books
  3. Cooper, J. (2000). Animals in War. London: Corgi.
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  11. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2005). Customary International Humanitarian Law, Vol. I: Rules, Edited by: Jean-Marie Henckaerts, Louise Doswald-Beck, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

  1. B) Articles
  2. de Hemptinne, J.; kebebew, T., & Niyo, J. J. (2022). Animals as Combatants and as Prisoners of War?. in: Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict, edited by: Peters, A., Kolb, R., & de Hemptinne, J., Cambridge: Cambridge University, 171-183.
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  7. Jenks, C. (2022). Animals as War Weapons. in: Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict, edited by: Peters, A., Kolb, R., & de Hemptinne, J., Cambridge: Cambridge University, 150-170.
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  9. Karsten, N. (2015). Animals at war: the status of "animal soldiers" under international humanitarian law. Historical Social Research, 4 (40), 128-150. doi: 10.12759/hsr.40.2015.4.128-150
  10. Klamberg, M. (2019). Evolution of Rules and Concepts in International Humanitarian Law: Navigating Through Legal Gaps and Fault Lines. in: International Humanitarian Law and Justice, edited by: Mats Deland, M., Klamberg, M., & Wrange, P, London: Routledge, 79-84.
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  15. Pipia, S. (2022). Forgotten Victims of War: Animals and the International Law of Armed Conflict. Animal Law, 28, 177-208.
  16. Peters, A., & de Hemptinne, J. (2022). Animals in war: At the Vanishing point of International Humanitarian Law. International Review of the Red Cross, 104 (919), 1285-1314.
  17. Roscini, M. (2017). Animals and the Law of Armed Conflict. University of Westminster School of Law Research Paper, 1-46.
  18. Roscini, M. (2022). Animals as Property and as Objects. in: Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict, edited by: Peters, A., Kolb, R., & de Hemptinne, J., Cambridge: Cambridge University, 73-91.
  19. Roberts, J. J. (2017). France Is Training Eagles to Kill Drones. Fortune, Last Visited: 13 January 2023, https://fortune.com/2017/02/22/drones-eagles-france/
  20. Turner, B. (2022). Russia is using military trained dolphins in the Black Sea, according to satellite images. last visited: 31 December of 2022, http:// www.livescience.com/russian-using-military-dolphins-satellite.

 

  1. C) Documents
  2. Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (First Geneva Convention), 1949.
  3. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 1977.
  4. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-international Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 1977.
  5. Universal declaration of animal rights, 1978.
  6. Convention on the Prohibition of Military or any Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD), 1976.
  7. International Law Commission (ILC) (2020), Draft Principles on Protection of Environment in relation to Armed Conflict, UN Doc. A/77/10.
  8. ICRC, Guidelines on the Protection of the Environment in Armed Conflict: Rules and Recommendations Relating to the Protection of the Natural Environment under International Humanitarian Law, with Commentary, ICRC, Geneva, 2020, Preliminary Considerations.

 

  1. D) Cases
  2. Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 226.

 

  1. E) Websites
  2. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/object
Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 54, Issue 2 - Serial Number 38
Summer 2024
Spring 2024
Pages 905-931

  • Receive Date 26 February 2023
  • Revise Date 09 April 2023
  • Accept Date 22 May 2023

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