THE ROLE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE AND CULTURE IN INTERNATIONAL

HUMANITARIAN LAW
Ann Julienne Aristozai

One of the talking points raised in the webinar was with regard to the cultural roots of
international humanitarian law in history. This was supplemented by Professor Suzannah Linton,
from China University (Political Science and Law), as she enumerated some examples of how
ancient civilizations in the Asia-Pacific region already had pre-existing rules on armed conflict
and the use of force, pre-dating any form of international agreements or treaties. For example, in
the Hindu society, they established cultural rules involving the caste system: that fighting should
only be among members of the warrior caste- such rule can be seen in “modern” international
law’s principle of distinctionii, a customary international law principle. A few other examples,
stemming from other cultures like China during the Spring and Autumn Period, and Sub-
Continental India, are (1) the ban on attacking a wounded enemy, (2) the prohibition on attacking
the aged, women, children, and surrendered fighters, (3) the prohibition against use of poisonous
weapons or those which cause unnecessary pain and suffering. All these pre-existing sources are
easily identifiable in modern international humanitarian law, some in instruments like the
Geneva Conventions and Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency
and Armed Conflict. It is interesting to see then that such rules have already governed the
internal workings of a culture, and by extension state-to-state and culture-to-culture relations,
before the fully realized concept of international agreement even came into the picture. Even
more interesting is how deeply embedded these international humanitarian principles and rules
are in the different cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, with the ideals of humanity and justice,
and humane and regulated fighting during war, being embodied through cultural songs, dances,
architecture, and art. It made me realize that international humanitarian law, and international
law for that matter, is not confined within desks, paper work, and world leaders, but is closely
intertwined with and manifested in the art and literature produced by common citizens. This
leads me to the next talking point raised by Professor Linton: that individuals can make a
difference in the field of IHL. She not only emphasized the importance of an individual’s legal
expertise in the legal field but also turned the lens towards the importance of humanitarianism.
This, to me, was a reminder that the law is not a cold set of rules to follow and enforce, but an
ever-evolving body patterned after human experience and made for human welfare. We often
forget the human side of the law as we are shielded by the coldness of codals and their
provisions. To remember the human lives which not only formed these laws but also the lives
impacted and sought to be protected by these laws is to make sense of our purpose within the
legal profession.
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2012-71650, 3C
ii
Such principle states that parties to an armed conflict must distinguish between the civilian population and combatants
and between civilian objects and military objectives (Sassoli, M. Legitimate Targets of Attack under International
Humanitarian Law, 2003.)