Week 1
The relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian law can best be described as:
A. Separate and distinct triggered by lex specialis theory.
B. Sequential in application.
C. Overlapping, with human rights norms within international humanitarian law.
D. Overlapping, with human rights norms within the jus ad bellum.
What is: Overlapping, with human rights norms within international humanitarian law?
What is the use of force exclusively predicated upon in international human rights law (IHRL)?
A. Threats
B. Status
C. Violence
D. Guns
What is: Threats?
Because States, who made and make international law, including IHL and IHRL, want to maintain their monopoly on the use of force, do not want to give non-state armed groups captured during armed conflict:
A. Legitimacy.
B. Legal rights.
C. Combatant immunity.
D. A & C.
What is: Legitimacy and Combatant immunity. [Option A & C]
When is a civilian’s presumptive protection from attack forfeited?
A. When they pose an imminent threat of deadly harm and deadly force is necessary to prevent this threat.
B. When they participate (directly) in hostilities.
C. When they work in a factory making ammunition.
D. When they are war correspondents accompanying enemy armed forces.
E. A & B.
What is: When they pose an imminent threat of deadly harm and deadly force is necessary to prevent this threat or they participate directly in hostilities.
Is “unprivileged belligerency” – that is, taking part in an armed conflict without the authority of a State – internationally unlawful, that is, prohibited by international law?
A. No, and therefore unprivileged belligerents are not war criminals.
B. Yes, and therefore unprivileged belligerents can be prosecuted as war criminals for violating IHL’s prohibition of unprivileged belligerency.
C. No, but can be prosecuted for domestic crimes for their unlawful acts of combatancy, such as murder, as well as for all serious violations of IHL (that is, war crimes).
D. Yes, and therefore unprivileged belligerents can be summarily executed.
What is: No, but they can be prosecuted for domestic crimes for their unlawful acts of combatancy, such as murder, as well as for all serious violations of IHL (that is, war crimes).
The intensity of the violence plays a critical role in the triggering of and international armed conflict:
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
What is: False?
States (nation-states, not Iowa / California J) have traditionally resisted characterizing armed conflicts against organized groups in their own territory as wars / armed conflicts primarily because:
A. They want to utilize peacetime law enforcement authority, governed by human rights law’s approach to use of force.
B. They want to trick the rest of the international community into thinking they have things totally under control.
C. They don’t want international law telling them how to handle domestic issues.
D. The fear doing so will confer legitimacy on the non-state armed group(s) the State is battling.
What is: The fear doing so will confer legitimacy on the non-state armed group(s) the State is battling.
Civilians who are authorized to accompany an armed force during an international armed conflict cannot be prosecuted by the enemy, if captured, for their earlier direct participation in hostilities:
A. True
B. False
What is: False.
What two types of military members do not benefit from combatant immunity, that is, are not legally authorized under IHL to directly participate in hostilities?
A. Support personnel and maintenance crews.
B. Support personnel and chaplains.
C. Chaplains and medical personnel.
D. Support personnel and medical personnel.
What is: Chaplains and medical personnel.
In Ukraine last week, a Ukrainian civilian is shot and badly wounded after acting like a sniper and shooting at advancing Russian troops. The Russian military finds him, next to several wounded Russian soldiers. The Russian military must:
A. Collect and provide medical care as they would one of their won soldiers, based on severity of injury.
B. Collect and provide medical care, but can treat their own wounded first regarding of severity of wounds, given the civilian’s unprivileged status.
C. Not collect or care for him, unless they want to, given that he’s not protected by GCI.
D. None of the above.
What is: Collect and provide medical care as they would one of their won soldiers, based on severity of injury.
When does a State’s assistance to a non-state-armed-group’s armed conflict against another State qualify as the assisting State becoming a party of the conflict, as well as becoming legally responsible for the non-state armed group’s actions (such as their war crimes)?
A. When the assisting State provides weapons intended for that conflict.
B. When the assisting States publicly declares it is supporting the non-state armed group in its conflict against another State.
C. When the assisting States provides intelligence to the non-state armed group.
D. When the assisting State is in control of the non-state armed group.
What is: When the assisting State is in control of the non-state armed group.
States have traditionally resisted characterizing conflicts against organized groups in their own territory as war (armed conflict). This reluctance has allowed for what body of law to play a large role in regulating non-international armed conflicts:
A. International human rights law
B. International humanitarian law
C. Law of the sea
D. International immigration law
What is: International Human Rights Law
A CIA agent is flying a drone during an IAC against Syria (hypothetically) while sitting in a comfy office building in Washington DC. This CIA agent is a combatant.
A. Yes.
B. No.
What is: No.
A belligerent or combatant who is hors de combat is one whom:
A. Is incapacitated due to illness or wounds.
B. Is incapacitated due to detention or intention to surrender.
C. Is one who can no longer be targeted & must be treated humanely.
D. Is now a victim of war and no longer a participant.
E. All of the above.
What is: incapacitated due to illness, wounds, detention, intention to surrender, and can no longer be targeted thus must be treated humanely. They are now a victim of war and no longer a participant. [All of the above].
A new U.S. video game is released, and it uses the Red Cross in various ways, usually to associate various people and equipment as having a medical role. What will likely happen?
A. Nothing, as such use is protected by the First Amendment.
B. The ICRC or American Red Cross will ask the company that owns the game to remove the Red Cross symbols.
C. The ICRC or American Red Cross will sue in U.S. federal court under U.S. federal law to have the symbol removed.
D. The company will be criminally charged by the Dept of Justice.
E. B, C & D.
What is: The ICRC or ARC will ask the company that owns the game to remove the Red Cross symbols. The ICRC or ARC will sue in U.S. federal court under U.S. federal law to have the symbol removed. The company will be criminally charged by the Dept. of Justice. [Options B, C, & D].
Four U.S. Soldiers patrolling the border near Macedonia as part of a UN peacekeeping force accidentally crossed the border into Serbia and were captured by Serbian military members (after an exchange of fire) and held for two days before being returned. The situation is best described as:
A. An international armed conflict
B. A non-international armed conflict
C. A mere border incident
D. Banditry
What is: An international armed conflict.
What type or types of civilian found on the battlefield (not occupation) is / are not protected by GC IV (the Civilian Convention)?
A. Civilians of the enemy State.
B. Civilians of enemy co-belligerent States.
C. Civilians of neutral States.
D. Civilians of co-belligerent States of capturing State.
E. Both C & D.
What is : Civilians of neutral States and Civilians of co-belligerent States of capturing State. [Both C & D].
While the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has interpreted Article 6 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (this article prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of life) as applicable in armed conflict, the term “arbitrary” should be determined by what?
A. International human rights law.
B. International humanitarian law.
C. International refugee law.
D. International occupation law.
What is: International Humanitarian Law?
Mercenaries, if captured, do not qualified for Prisoner of War (POW) status plus can be prosecuted for their acts of combatancy (acts which otherwise would be authorized under IHL).
A. True.
B. False.
What is: True
Under heavy fire, having sustained heavy casualties and with no choice given dwindling supplies of ammunition and food, your infantry unit of 60 personnel is retreating from the immediate front lines. Your medical staff of three army medics have been treating four (3) enemy wounded in your unit’s custody while also caring for your own growing number of wounded. Your commander asks you, her legal advisor, if she has to leave medics and medical supplies with the enemy wounded when the unit retreats. You answer:
A. No, she does not have to leave her own medics with the enemy wounded.
B. Yes, she must leave with them a part of her unit’s medical personnel and material to assist in their care, if military considerations permit.
C. Yes, she must leave with them a part of her unit’s medical personnel and material to assist in their care, otherwise she cannot abandon them.
D. Yes, but only if the enemy wounded have sustained serious wounds.
What is: Yes, she must leave with them a part of her unit's medical personnel and material to assist in their care, if military considerations permit.
What is the use of force primarily, though not exclusively, predicated upon in international humanitarian law (IHL)?
A. Threats
B. Status
C. Violence
D. Guns
What is: Status?
Great Britain, a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), is a coalition partner fighting non-state armed groups in a counter-insurgency in Iraq in 2009. British special forces troops are holding 100 Iraqi men in custody.
After they are released two months later, lawyers for some of the men sue the British government in British court, claiming that the mens’ rights under the ECHR were violated when detained by the British forces in Iraq. They sue for compensatory damages ($$). The Iraqi men, if the violations are true, will likely:
A. Lose their case because the ECHR does not apply outside Great Britain.
B. Lose their case because the men should have sued under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
C. Win their case because the European Court (at Strasbourg) tends to find that control over others brings with it human rights obligations derived from the ECHR.
D. Win their case because the Iraq war was illegal under the jus ad bellum.
What is: Win their case because the European Court (at Strasbourg) tends to find that control over others brings with it human rights obligations derived from the ECHR.
What is the most important benefit from being characterized as a civilian in armed conflict?
A. Presumptive protection from attack.
B. Humane treatment & no detention unless one poses a threat.
C. Right to be evacuated from the area of military operations.
D. Right to not be forced to work for the enemy.
What is: Presumptive protection from attack.
International humanitarian law prohibits the use of foreign fighters in armed conflict.
A. True.
B. False.
What is: False.
The Russian Army is occupying cities such as Mariupol, Ukraine. While occupying, the Army patrols city streets and is regularly shot at by members of resistance groups and random Ukrainian civilians. The Russian commander of that area orders civilians suspected of engaging in such activity to be interned by the Russian military. What needs to be part of this order?
A. This order must include that the civilians are to be held only based on the same criminal law standards as were operating prior to foreign occupation.
B. The order must include that only those civilians whom, for reasons of “imperative reasons of security” can be interned as security detainees and that a procedure be established to determine such threat, with a right of appeal by the internee.
C. The order must include that such security internees can be held for the duration of the conflict.
D. The order must include the right to counsel by those interned by the Army.
E. B & D.
What is: The order must include that only those civilians whom, for reasons of "imperative reasons of security" can be interned as security detainees and that a procedure be established to determine such threat, with a right of appeal by the internee.