IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW BY THE AGENCIES OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Abstract

International humanitarian law (IHL) seeks to protect persons who are not or no longer fight war. It also sets out to restrict or restrain the means and methods of armed conflict through constraining combatants and belligerents in their choice of weapons for armed conflict. The United Nations was founded in 1945 at the end of the Second World War to protect international peace and security or any threat thereat. The Charter of the UN provides for multiple agencies whose duties are complementary for the sole purpose of maintenance of international peace and security. This work examines the various roles which these UN bodies play in the promotion and enforcement of IHL. The work concludes that, indeed, the UN agencies have made significant impact on the activities of UN member states and state parties to the Four Geneva Conventions and their Two Additional Protocols in their compliance with these treaty documents. The work recommends that these agencies have a duty to ensure that state parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols of 1977 respect their treaty obligations with respect to the compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law.