The Changing Significance of Nationality for the Protection of Civilians in the Hands of a Party to an International Armed Conflict
- 9 March 2023
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Conflict and Security Law
- Vol. 28 (3), 501-532
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jcsl/krad005
Abstract
The Fourth Geneva Convention provides the main protection regime for civilians in the hands of a party to an international armed conflict. Yet its application is limited to non-nationals, and conditional upon states’ belligerent and legal relations. This article historicises and problematises the so-called nationality requirement for the treatment and protection of civilians. The significance of nationality for international humanitarian law has changed considerably since the late nineteenth century. The complex delineation of civilian protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention was, therefore, not inevitable. The article challenges the common perception of the treaty as a humanitarian achievement designed to safeguard innocent and vulnerable civilians. This detailed study of nationality provides insights into the changing perception of civilians as war victims and the role of international humanitarian law in protecting them.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Modern statelessness and the British imperial perspective. A comment on Mira Siegelberg’s Statelessness: A Modern HistoryHistory of European Ideas, 2021
- The protection of migrants under international humanitarian lawInternational Review of the Red Cross, 2017
- A Short History of International Humanitarian LawEuropean Journal of International Law, 2015
- Armed Conflict and DisplacementPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,2012
- The Interplay of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: The Approach of the ICTYJournal of Conflict and Security Law, 2009