TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE PAGE
CERTIFICATION
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF STATUTES
TABLE OF CASES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- Introduction
- Statement of the problem
- Objective of the study
- Significance of the study
- Scope of the study
- Research Method
- Definition of Terms
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
THREE: NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
3.1 The Nature of International Law
3.1.1 Historical Development of International Humanitarian Law
3.1.2 The Sources of International Humanitarian Law
3.1.3 The Scope of Protection under International Humanitarian Law
3.1.4 Conduct of Hostilities
3.2 General Principles of International Humanitarian Law
3.2.1 Limitation
3.2.2 Military Necessity
3.2.3 Principle of Proportionality
3.2.4 The Principle of Distinction
3.2.5 The Principle of Humanity
CHAPTER FOUR: CAUSES, EFFECT AND CONTROL OF MODERN WARFARE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
4.1 The Development of International Law on the Environment
4.1.1 Modern Warfare Causes and Unprecedented Environmental Damage.
4.2 The Sources of Environmental Damage during Warfare
4.2.1 Intentional Damage
4.2.2 Collateral Damage
4.2.3 Wanton Damage
4.2.4 Other Indirect Effects
4.2.5 Aftermath Of war
4.3 Provisions Specifically aimed at Protecting the Environment
4.3.1 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention of 1949
4.4 Prohibition of Military Activities and Other Use of Environmental Modification Technique
4.4.1 Special Rules Limiting the Means and Method of Warfare
4.4.2 Limitation on Targets
4.4.3 Objects Indispensable to the Civilian Population
4.4.4 Installations Containing Dangerous Forces Cultural Objects.
4.5.1 Biological and Chemical Weapons
4.5.2 Incendiary Weapon
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendations
Bibliography
ABSTRACT
Indeed, the toll of warfare seen today reaches far beyond human suffering, displacement and damage to homes and infrastructure. The profounding evidence of the impact of warfare can be said to involve conflict not only between the combatant but also between man and nature. The impact of these weapons persist long after the conflict has ended, making the environment uninhabitable and dangerous to the survival of humanity. This prompted the development of mechanisms for the regulation of military operations. The international humanitarian law has from its inception constrained and regulated the conduct of hostility in order to minimize suffering and by extension protect the environment. Although, the international humanitarian law is concerned with the anthropocentric protection during warfare, by the restrictions it provides on the means and methods of warfare, the law also by extension protect the environment. This research project seeks to evaluate the efficacy of the mechanisms under international humanitarian law in order to prevent the prevalent use of weapons which are capable of making the environment uninhabitable. However, having madescholastic x-ray of the various regulations on warfare, it is undoubtedly, established that the protection afforded to the environment by international humanitarian law has been consistently violated and unenforced. For instance, victims are barely compensated for the damage making the law ineffective. Hence, the recommendation made is that, the responsibility resulting from environmental damage during hostilities should be enforced and compensations made once the crime is established.
Chapter one
General introduction
1.1Background to the Study
Destruction of the natural landscape by warfare is nothing new, but the scope of destruction seen in recent conflicts is unprecedented[1]. The action of belligerents have constituted a great danger not only to man but to nature itself. The effects of atomic and hydrogenic weapons used as military strategy often constitute a serious threat and has caused destruction, pollution affecting nature and the environment where it is engaged.
However, it is an unimpeachable fact that violence against humanity cannot itself be severed from human existence. This therefore prompted the urgent needs for the development of rules and mechanisms for the regulation of conduct of belligerent during military operations for the purpose of sparing and protecting humanity. Laws are therefore vitalin regulating societal conduct. Hence, without law and regulations, society can easily regress to the Hobbesian ‘state of nature’, i.e, a state characterized by perpetual strife, which according to Hobbes, ‘human life was solitary, poor nasty, brutish and short.