Legal Regulation of the Effects of Military Activity on

the Environment

The Hague Conference on Environment, Security and Sustainable Development

9-12 May 2004

Amy HindmanLegal Advisor to the Executive Director

UNEP

“Inter Armes, Silent Leges”(In times of war laws fall silent)

-Cicero

Damage to the Environment through military conflict

Intentional damage Collateral damage Wanton damage Other indirect effects and

aftermath

Potential protection for the human environment in the context of armed conflict

Basic principles of humanitarian law

Environmental Conventions The law of the Hague

1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions codifying the laws and customs of war

The law of Geneva Protection of classes of people and

objects outside of combat

Express protection for the environment in armed conflict

1977 First Geneva Protocol Geneva Protocol I, Art. 35(3) Geneva Protocol I, Art 55(1)

Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD)

Specific rules limiting the means and methods of warfare

Limitations on TargetsDangerous forces Cultural objects

Limitations on WeaponsBiological and chemical weaponsLandmines

Limitations based on AreaAntarcticaNeutral states

Sufficiency of existing laws, rules and policies: one assessment

With the exception of article 35(3) of Geneva Protocol I, law of war does not expressly protect environmental resources

Important environmental provisions have not entered into customary international law

General principles of humanitarian law are too open-ended to preclude most environmental damage

Very few norms address the problems of environmental harms stemming from non-international conflicts

Potential Solutions: Bodansky Recommendations

A comprehensive review of the environmental effects of war

A UN or ICRC Resolution urging states to protect the environment during non-international conflict

Inclusion of environmental concerns in military manuals (such as the ICRC environmental guidelines)

Inclusion of environmental rules in NATO Combined Rules of Engagement

Binding instruments, such as a convention on the prohibition of military activities in protected environments

“Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his

society. What man has made, man can change.”

- Frederick Moore Vinson