RICR Juin IRRC June 2002 Vol. 84 No 846
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State responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law by Marco Sassòli
ublic international law can be described as being composed of two layers: the first is the traditional layer consisting of the law regulating coexistence and cooperation between the members of the international society — essentially the States; and the second is a new layer consisting of the law of the community of six billion human beings. Although international humanitarian law came into being as part of the traditional layer, i.e. as a law regulating belligerent inter-State relations, it has today become nearly irrelevant unless understood within the second layer, namely as a law protecting war victims against States and all others who wage war. The implementation of international humanitarian law may therefore be understood from the viewpoint of both layers. For a branch of law that applies in a fundamentally anarchic, illegal and often lawless situation such as armed conflicts, the focus of implementing mechanisms is and must always be on prevention. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the traditional implementing mechanism of international humanitarian law, acts as a neutral intermediary between States and as an institutionalized representative of
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Marco Sassòli is Professor of International Law at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. He is a former ICRC delegate and head of delegation, and former Deputy Head of the ICRC's Legal Division. He would like to thank his research assistants Ms Marie-Louise Tougas and Mr Isabelito Domingo for their valuable assistance in preparing this article.