Preliminary Report on the Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflict
Publisher: United Nations General Assembly
Author(s): Marie G. Jacobsson
Date: 2014
Topics: Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
It has long been recognized that environmental effects that occur both during and after an armed conflict have the potential to pose a serious threat to the livelihoods and even the existence of individual human beings and communities. Unlike many of the other consequences of armed conflict, environmental harm may be long-term and irreparable and has the potential to prevent an effective rebuilding of the society, destroy pristine areas and disrupt important ecosystems.
The legal and political landscape has changed since specific rules for the purpose of protecting the environment during armed conflict were adopted almost 40 years ago, namely, the 1976Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) and Protocol I additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. At that time, international environmental law was in its infancy. Moreover, armed conflicts back then were of a different character. That is to say, most conflicts were classified as being of an international character or a liberation war, whereas non-international armed conflicts of a different character are most common today. This new reality may pose a challenge when applying existing law.