The Role of the Human Rights Committee in Interpreting and Developing Humanitarian Law

Abstract

The four Geneva Conventions and the two Additional Protocols of 1977 generally lack authoritative mechanisms for interpretation. Interpretation and application of these treaties are left principally to the judgment of the States parties to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols1 as well as increasingly to the International Criminal Court and tribunals. The International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”) encourages States parties to comply with their obligations under humanitarian law; however, it is not an adjudicative body,2 and it rarely publishes its authoritative interpretations of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols. Article 90 of Protocol I Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions authorizes the establishment of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission.3 While 70 states have