Practitioners’ Guide to Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict

Daragh Murray is a lecturer in the School of Law & Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. His research focuses on the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and the relationship between the two. He has a particular interest in the activities of non-State armed groups and has recently published a monograph entitled Human Rights Obligations of non-State Armed Groups.


Elizabeth Wilmshurst CMG is Associate Fellow, International Law, at Chatham House, and a visiting professor at University College, London University. She was a legal adviser in the United Kingdom diplomatic service between 1974 and 2003. Between 1994 and 1997 she was the Legal Adviser to the UK mission to the United Nations in New York. She took part in the negotiations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Her experience has been in public international law generally, with a particular emphasis on the use of force, international criminal law, the law of the United Nations and its organs, consular and diplomatic law, State and sovereign immunity, and international humanitarian law.


Francoise Hampson is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Essex. She was formerly an independent expert member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 1998-2007. She has acted as a consultant on humanitarian law to the International Committee of the Red Cross and taught at Staff Colleges or equivalents in the UK, USA, Canada & Ghana. She represented Oxfam and SCF (UK) at the Preparatory Committee and first session of the Review Conference for the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention. Professor Hampson has successfully litigated many cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and, in recognition of her contribution to the development of law in this area, was awarded Human Rights Lawyer of the Year jointly with her colleague from the Centre, Professor Kevin Boyle. She has taught, researched and published widely in the fields of armed conflict, international humanitarian law and on the European Convention on Human Rights.


Charles Garraway is a Fellow at the University of Essex and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. He formerly served for thirty years as a legal officer in the United Kingdom Army Legal Services, initially as a criminal prosecutor but latterly as an adviser in the law of armed conflict and operational law. In that capacity, he represented the Ministry of Defence at numerous international conferences and was part of the UK delegations to the First Review Conference for the 1981 Conventional Weapons Convention, the negotiations on the establishment of an International Criminal Court, and the Diplomatic Conference that led to the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention on Cultural Property. He was also the senior Army lawyer deployed to the Gulf during the 1990/91 Gulf Conflict.


Noam Lubell is a Professor and Head of the School of Law at the University of Essex. In past years he was a Lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway; the Co-Director of the International Law Amicus Curiae Clinic at the Concord Research Centre in Israel; and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He has taught courses on international human rights law and the laws of armed conflict in a number of academic institutions, including the University of Essex, the National University of Ireland, the University of Oxford, the Geneva Academy, and as a Visiting Professor at Case Western Reserve University in the US. Professor Lubell holds the Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law, at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and is the Rapporteur of the International Law Ass

Although the relationship between international human rights law and the law of armed conflict has been the subject of significant recent academic discussion, there remains a lack of comprehensive guidance in identifying the law applicable to specific situations faced by military forces.

Providing guidance for armed forces and practitioners on the detailed application of international human rights law during armed conflict, this book fills that gap. Part 1 of the volume details foundational information relating to international human rights law and human rights institutions, the types of operations that States' armed forces engage in, and how the law of armed conflict and international human rights law apply to regulate different situations. Part 2 provides practical guidance as to the legal regulation of specific situations, including discussion of the conduct of hostilities, detention operations, humanitarian assistance, cyber operations, and investigations.

This book is the result of an in-depth process involving both academic and practitioner experts in the law of armed conflict and international human rights law who were convened in meetings at Chatham House chaired by Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House. The group included Professor Francoise Hampson, Essex University; Professor Dapo Akande, Oxford University; Charles Garraway, Fellow at Essex University; Professor Noam Lubell, Essex University; Michael Meyer, British Red Cross; and Daragh Murray, Lecturer at Essex University.

This book provides detailed guidance for armed forces and practitioners on the application of international human rights law during armed conflict and its relationship with the law of armed conflict.