The United Nations and International Humanitarian Law: The Past 75 Years

The creation of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 and the adoption of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 coincide but the relationship between the UN and international humanitarian law (IHL) remains uneasy. While the UN initially refrained from engaging with international humanitarian law, it contributed to making international humanitarian law more humanitarian through the development of human rights standards and their influence on international humanitarian law. The UN’s peacekeeping operations continue to face challenges in applying IHL while preserving the impartial nature of peacekeeping, while the Security Council (primarily through its Protection of Civilians agenda) as well as UN human rights bodies have over the past decades become tools for monitoring and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law and investigating violations of it. The article examines how the UN has over the past 75 years developed, affirmed, investigated, respected, monitored, enforced, and adjudicated international humanitarian law, and analyses the challenges the UN has encountered in doing so.