Chapter

Dr. Jean Pictet and international humanitarian law

Enrique P. Syquia

Etudes et essais sur le droit international humanitaire et sur les principes de la Croix-Rouge : en l'honneur de Jean Pictet = Studies and essays on international humanitarian law and Red Cross principles : in honour of Jean Pictet

Genève : CICR ; La Haye : Nijhoff, 1984

p. 551-557

English

The author provides a tribute to Jean Pictet, focusing on the development of the definition and the schema of international humanitarian law (IHL) in relation to Pictet’s work. Pictet defined IHL as including all the international legal standards, whether based in treaty or customary international law, ensuring respect for the individual and promoting his or her development. Moreover, Pictet proposed a schema of IHL emphasizing the relationship between the different international laws relating to the good of mankind; namely, he divided IHL into two branches: the law of war and human rights law. Pictet further divided the law of war into two branches, “the law of The Hague or law of war proper, and the law of Geneva or humanitarian law.” The author argues that the International Committee of the Red Cross adopts a competing definition of IHL restricted to “armed conflicts,” and that, in doing so, excludes peacetime human rights from the parameters of the field. The International Institute of Humanitarian Law, by contrast, embraces a definition of IHL—consistent with Pictet’s—that extends beyond warfare and armed conflicts. The author emphasizes that new developments in the law designed to further protect and promote the integrity and well-being of the human being are emerging, which he asserts are at the expense of state power. Adopting Pictet’s broader definition of the field, the author includes all of these—international human rights law, international refugee law, and others—within the wide umbrella of IHL. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

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• Etudes et essais sur le droit international humanitaire et sur les principes de la Croix-Rouge : en l'honneur de Jean Pictet = Studies and essays on international humanitarian law and Red Cross principles : in honour of Jean Pictet / Christophe Swina