I. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN ARMED CONFLICT:
LEGAL SOURCES, PRINCIPLES AND ACTORS
reiterated that certain rights contained in the Covenant cannot be subject
to derogation, including article 6 (right to life), article 7 (prohibition of
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, or of medical or
scientific experimentation without consent), article 8, paragraphs 1 and 2
(prohibition of slavery, slave trade and servitude), article 11 (prohibition
of imprisonment because of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation),
article 15 (the principle of legality in the field of criminal law, i.e., the
requirement of both criminal liability and punishment being limited to clear
and precise provisions in the law that was in place and applicable at the
time the act or omission took place, except in cases where a later law
imposes a lighter penalty), article 16 (the recognition of everyone as a
person before the law), and article 18 (freedom of thought, conscience
and religion).10 The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
in its Statement on racial discrimination and measures to combat terrorism,
has confirmed that the prohibition of racial discrimination is a norm of ius
cogens.11
The jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, which the Court’s
Statute recognizes as a subsidiary means for the determination of rules
of law, is increasingly referring to States’ human rights obligations in
situations of armed conflict.12 These decisions have provided further
clarification on issues such as the continuous application of international
human rights law in situations of armed conflict.
In the context of the implementation of human rights obligations, the
human rights treaty bodies established to monitor the implementation of
core human rights treaties, such as the Human Rights Committee or the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regularly provide
General comment No. 29 (2001), para. 7.
Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 18
(A/57/18), chap. XI, sect. C, para. 4.
12
Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports
1996, p. 226; Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 136; and Armed
Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda),
Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2005, p. 168.
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