International humanitarian law (IHL) is an independent branch of public law, consisting of a set of principles and norms of the MP that determine the rights and freedoms common to the whole world; State obligations with regard to securing, securing and protecting these rights and freedoms, and providing individuals with the legal opportunity to exercise and protect the rights and freedoms recognized for them.
The main and main task of IHL is the development of treaties, the norms of which clearly establish the totality of the rights and obligations of the parties to a military conflict, as well as the limitation of methods and means of conducting armed actions.
Some lawyers categorize international humanitarian law into two branches: the Hague Law, which governs the methods and methods of military operations, and the Geneva Law, which contains rules regarding the protection of victims of hostilities. The concept of “victims of armed conflict” includes the wounded and sick in the army; wounded, sick and people who were shipwrecked and are part of the armed forces at sea; prisoners of war; civilians.
1864 went down in history as the year the Swiss government held a conference to develop an act to help victims of hostilities. The outcome of the meeting resulted in the signing of the first Convention for the Protection of the Wounded and Sick during War. She became the first source of IHL.
Sources of international humanitarian law today are represented in large numbers, and all of them are aimed at regulating relations between states during armed operations. There are three varieties of those. The first is the norms, the effect of which applies only in peacetime. The second - the rules that apply exclusively during the period of hostilities. The third variety is mixed norms, which are in force both during peace and during armed conflicts.
The norms of international humanitarian law in different historical periods contained various prescriptions. The laws of Manu established a restriction on violence, which included a ban on the killing of unarmed prisoners and the use of poisoned weapons. In ancient Greece, the norm prescribed that the outbreak of hostilities should occur with the announcement of them. In the case of the seizure of cities, it was impossible to kill those who took refuge in temples, prisoners of war had to exchange and redeem themselves.
During the Hague Peace Conference in 1899, Martens F.F. It was proposed to apply a provision that would protect civilians and warring parties in situations where the actions of states are not governed by IHL. This provision establishes that the civilian population and military personnel are subject to the norms of the MP due to the fact that they are the result of customs established by educated peoples, the laws of humanity, as well as the demands of public consciousness. This norm went down in history as the “Martens clause”.
International humanitarian law, like other branches of law, sets its principles, the main of which is the humanization of military conflicts. The following are among others: protection of cultural values; protection and respect for the interests of neutral states; restriction of the parties involved in hostilities in the means and methods for their conduct.
The designation of the situation of a military conflict between states entails the onset of legal consequences, such as the termination of consular and diplomatic relations; application of a special regime for citizens of an enemy state; termination of agreements that were respected in peacetime. International humanitarian law begins to operate precisely in this period.