Protection of the Environment against Damage during Armed Conflict

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 PhD. Student of public international law, Faculty of Law and Political Science , Allameh Tabatabai University

2 PhD. Student privacy rights, Faculty of Humanities , Qom Islamic Azad University

Abstract

War is a phenomenon in which the damage is inevitable and one of the significant losses during armed conflict is the environment. In this respect, humanitarian law protects and takes account of the environment in a few of its regulations. However, these regulations have not given sufficient support to the environment and the question arises whether any prohibitions available in international environmental law are applicable to environmental protection in this case, or should we only use the provisions contained in humanitarian international law for this. In this paper we consider these regulations and the possibility of applying of them to protecting the environment in the event of armed conflict. Damage to the environment during armed conflict may occur intentionally or unintentionally. Intentional damage to the environment occurs when the environment is used as a weapon or damage to the environment is deliberate, but the environment is not used as a weapon. Regulations that have been enacted to protect against these damages contain certain conditions and the fulfilment of these conditions is necessary for incurring damage. Regarding unintentional damage to the environment, the main victim is not the environment, however, and the precautionary principle should be applied. In this regard, it is necessary to consider types of losses, existing prohibitions and possibility of minimizing environmental losses.

Keywords

References

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Environmental Sciences
Volume 14, Issue 2
July 2016
Pages 139-153

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