Human Rights in Times of Conflict and Terrorism

This book is a guide to international human rights law as it applies to situations of armed conflict, to counter-terrorism measures and to any other situation of actual or potential violence requiring security measures. These situations can lead to some of the most fundamental human rights being put in danger of being violated. These include the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, enforced disappearance, all the rights relating to detention and due process of law, and the freedoms most commonly affected by armed conflict and counter-terrorism.

The book begins with a presentation on the application of human rights to such situations and an explanation of the regime of limitations and derogations. After an overall description of the relationship between human rights law, on the one hand, and international humanitarian law and international counter-terrorism measures, on the other, the book concentrates on the rights themselves. Each chapter presents the relevant treaty provisions and explains the interpretation of the rights by reference to the case law and general comments of these treaty bodies. The book concludes with a section on how international human rights law protects certain vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in such situations.

Louise Doswald-Beck is a Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She was formerly Director of its predecessor, the University Center for International Humanitarian Law.

Initially a lecturer at the Universities of Exeter and London, between 1987 and 2001 she was a legal adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross and became Head of the Legal Division in 1998. At the ICRC, she acted in negotiations leading to various international instruments: the Statute of the International Criminal Court and its Elements of Crimes, Protocols II and IV of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the Ottawa Convention on Anti-Personnel Landmines, and Protocol II to the Hague Convention on Cultural Property. She won the Ciardi Prize for co-authoring the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, and has written extensively on the use of of force and human rights.