On the Origins of Human Rights in War

Abstract

This chapter discusses the thesis found in some newer publications according to which the two branches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were not as neatly separated between 1949 and 1968 as is often claimed. Its point is that while in effect no complete separation prevailed, the pendulum should not swing too much in the other direction. It would be an anachronistic ideological statement, projected back to the past, to say that both branches were in close relations since the times after World War II. Separation prevailed, but bridges were progressively built, blossoming since the end of the 1960s, especially in the wake of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.