The Urgency of Protecting Human Rights in the Context of Armed Conflict

cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to be protected from slavery or servitude; the right to be protected from arbitrary arrest or detention; the right to be treated with humanity and dignity; the right to a fair trial; the right to freedom of movement and residence; the right to privacy; the right to freedom of opinion, belief, religion, and belief; the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right to marry, found a family and equality in marriage, the right to freedom of association, and the right to participate in political life. The group of economic, cultural and social rights includes: the right to enjoy and maintain an adequate standard of living; the right to work and to fair and equitable remuneration; the right to social security, the right to family support, the right to health, and the right to education.

1.1.2. The urgency of protecting human rights in the context of armed conflict

Firstly, war inevitably causes many human losses and pain. According to data from the Ministry of Defense and some other documents, during the war,

World War I: 8 million soldiers died, 15 million were seriously injured, of which 7 million were disabled for life, most of whom were in their youth, the main labor force. The war also caused famine, disease and civilians also suffered disasters. If civilians were included, World War I caused about 33 million casualties, including soldiers and civilians. The damage of World War II was much greater with more than 60 million deaths, including: Soviet Union 27 million, China 13.5 million, Poland 6 million, Germany 7.3 million, Japan 2.1 million, Yugoslavia 1.6 million, more than 70 countries with 1,700 million people were drawn into the war, about 60 million people died, 90 million people were disabled and many villages and cities were destroyed. Through the data we see that war has caused extremely serious consequences for humanity [36].

During the Vietnam War, "American troops sprayed a number of

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large amounts of dioxin and weapons of mass destruction. The consequences have caused millions of people to die and suffer disabilities, especially 150,000 second and third generation children suffering from toxic consequences that are suffering every day...” [46].

After the war ended, the victims were slowly dying, suffering both physically and mentally. Among them, there were many tragic and desperate situations because of illness and loneliness. Hundreds of thousands of victims died, hundreds of thousands of people are struggling with serious illnesses, hundreds of thousands of children are deformed, have congenital disabilities, and live a vegetative life...

Second, the economy is exhausted, causing great damage to property.

According to the above source, the material damage of World War I ended with about 260 billion USD. The direct military expenditure of the participating countries was about 208 billion USD. The growth rate of Europe was slowed down by about 8 years due to World War I.

World War II ended, millions of European people and refugees lost their homes. The continent's economy collapsed, most of the industrial infrastructure was destroyed. The Soviet Union was the most severely affected with economic losses of up to 30%. In terms of material, the warring countries spent about 1,384 billion USD. The damage caused by the war ravaged the world is incalculable. In the Soviet Union alone, 1,710 cities, 70,000 villages, and 32,000 factories were destroyed or burned. In Japan, 70 cities were bombed by the US Air Force, including 2 cities that were bombed with atomic bombs. The damage caused by the German fascists in Europe is incalculable. The damage to culture and civilization is also very heavy [36].

Third, the environment is seriously damaged.

Modern warfare with its destructive power of lethal weapons not only causes heavy human and material losses, but also seriously destroys the environment. “ For example, in 10 years, from

In 1961 - 1971, the US military sprayed 80 million liters of herbicides over about 1/4 of the entire area of South Vietnam, mainly Agent Orange containing 366 kg of dioxin" [5] . With such a large amount of toxic chemicals sprayed, repeatedly over a long period of time at high concentrations, not only did it kill plants and animals, but it also polluted the environment for a long time and disrupted natural ecosystems. That destruction is called the war of environmental destruction, destroying the ecosystem and people in Vietnam.

Fourth, an objective necessity when conflicts occur is that human rights are narrowed and more limited than human rights in peacetime:

Every human being is born with the basic rights of a human being simply because they are human. They are born with the right to life, the right to pursue happiness, to a fair trial, and to protection of their health. The right to life as one of the most basic human rights is stipulated in the International Law of Human Rights. In the Geneva Law, it is legal for the enemy to take each other's lives with guns. In addition, there are situations where civilians are killed, prisoners of war and deserters are tortured, treated inhumanely, and fall into the black hole of the law without being tried through a court, which is common in wars.

In addition, according to the International Human Rights Law, any individual who deprives another person of his or her liberty must be prosecuted (with some exceptions), while in the Geneva Law, the law still allows states to detain prisoners of war, and may detain some civilians for security reasons. In particular, there are some differences in the proceedings. In theory, both laws stipulate that defendants have the right to defense. The right to defense of defendants who violate the law in armed conflicts is usually tried in the court of the opposing party, that is, their previous enemy. If there is a language barrier, the rights of the defendants will be affected.

many difficulties in protecting their rights. On the contrary, defendants in peacetime can contact relatives, find lawyers, and most of them do not have language barriers, so protecting their rights is more convenient.

Fifth, basic human rights are seriously violated.

As presented above, we can clearly see that the damage caused by war is extremely great in terms of people, property, and the environment, thereby greatly affecting the issue of human rights protection. Specifically, the right to life is seriously violated, especially for groups of people who are innocent and not related to the war, such as innocent civilians, women, children, people with disabilities, and medical staff. In the context of war, it seems that the innate human rights such as the right to life, the right to safety, the right not to be tortured, etc. are still blatantly violated. Attacks, shootings, bombings, and other indiscriminate weapons are common occurrences. Therefore, the damage to people, property, and assets is extremely large, which inevitably seriously affects human rights.

In a horrifying video clip of “ American soldiers shooting civilians in Iraq and laughing next to the corpses that was recently posted online” [3], we can clearly see the disregard for human life in modern warfare. An example that cannot be ignored is the consequences of the Vietnam War: “ millions of people lost their right to live, hundreds of mothers had to live lonely old age, especially 150,000 second and third generation children with toxic effects are suffering from an incomplete life” [39], all human rights of the second and third generation are seriously hindered due to complications of Agent Orange.

Besides, in many cases, the right to minimum food is not guaranteed due to heavy damage from war, spending on weapons and combat services without being able to invest in economic development, especially in the areas of agriculture.

Poor countries when war breaks out, the economy is already stagnant, then it falls into a state of crisis, typically Vietnam, after taking power in 1945, " most production facilities were at a standstill, tens of thousands of workers were unemployed, storms, floods in 9 northern provinces, the Red River dike broke making people's lives even more difficult " [14, p.102].

On the other hand, environmental rights are seriously affected, specifically as presented above, with a very large amount of toxic chemicals sprayed, repeatedly over a long period of time at high concentrations, killing trees and animals and polluting the environment for a long time, leading to disruption of natural ecosystems. The phenomenon of forests and land being contaminated with chemicals makes it impossible for forests to grow, and land being contaminated with chemicals cannot be used for farming or raising livestock. From there, the right to human health is not guaranteed because living in an environment with toxic chemicals causes many phenomena such as infertility, birth defects, bone cancer, skin cancer, etc.

In particular, some rights such as the right to be protected from torture, cruel and inhuman treatment or punishment are also violated quite commonly, typically, the horrific experiments on the human body by the Nazis, "prisoners in concentration camps were forced to participate in gruesome experiments that often caused death, physical disfigurement or lifelong disability" [27] such as experiments on twins, musculoskeletal and nervous system experiments on the bodies of prisoners of war... Besides, some other human rights are affected such as: the right to freedom of movement, freedom of residence, the right to be protected from arbitrary detention, hunger, forced participation in the armed forces.

1.2. General overview of the four Geneva Conventions

1.2.1. Concept of the four Geneva Conventions

The sources of International Humanitarian Law include two forms: treaties and customs, which means that in addition to treaties which have only the force of

binding member states, all parties to an armed conflict in the world are also bound by customs. International humanitarian customs play an extremely important role in current armed conflicts because they have the effect of filling the remaining gap of treaties regulated by international humanitarian. Both forms are applied in the current period. However, customs as rules of conduct are repeated many times to form habits in behavior when armed conflicts occur, so there is no need to force but the parties do it themselves like a rule of covenant, but the disadvantage is that due to the emphasis on self-awareness, morality, and humanity of the parties, there is no effective legal mechanism to deter if the parties violate, so the effectiveness of customs is not high.

On the contrary, the law of treaties regulated by International Humanitarian Law overcomes the shortcomings of customs. Therefore, international treaties regulated by International Humanitarian Law are increasingly recognized and applied. In the law of treaties, there are two branches of law: Geneva Law and Hague Law. Hague Law " has the main content of regulating issues on the methods of waging war as well as the measures and means used in war" [45, p.58]. As one of the two important branches of law of treaties regulated by International Humanitarian Law:

Geneva Law is a concept that refers to a collection of documents developed under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and adopted at diplomatic conferences held in Geneva (Switzerland) since the mid-19th century. The documents originating from this source have a central content aimed at protecting victims of armed conflicts (including wounded, sick, shipwrecked soldiers, civilians, prisoners of war...) [45, p.57].

Thus, in the most general sense, Geneva law is a set of documents

International legal documents researched, developed and organized by the International Red Cross and diplomatic conferences to adopt these documents. The scope of application includes: international armed conflicts and non-international armed conflicts. Subjects protected under the Geneva law include: wounded, sick, shipwrecked, civilians, prisoners of war, medical staff, religious staff, journalists, schools, hospitals.

The most typical documents originating from this source are the Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1906, 1929, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the two additional protocols of 1977.

The Geneva Convention currently in force consists of four conventions: the Geneva Convention (I) for the Protection of Wounded and Sick Persons of Armed Forces on Land, 1949; the Geneva Convention (II) for the Protection of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Persons of Armed Forces at Sea, 1949; the Geneva Convention (III) for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 1949; the Geneva Convention (IV) for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949, and two Additional Protocols of 1977, namely: Protocol (I) for the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts; Protocol (II) for the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. The four conventions and two Protocols have established the standards of international law on humanitarian rules of conduct in war.

The first Geneva Convention of 1864 was adopted at the Diplomatic Conference held in Geneva and under the organization and direction of the International Committee for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers - the first international non-governmental organization in this field and the predecessor of the current International Committee of the Red Cross - including 10 Articles with the participation of 16 European countries. After that, this Convention continued to be amended, supplemented and developed until 1949 including "600 Articles with the participation of 196 countries" [52].

1.2.2. History of the formation and development of the four Geneva Conventions In 1859, a Swiss citizen - Henri Dugan witnessed with his own eyes

The horrific aftermath of the Battle of Solferino (Northern Italy) left thousands of wounded soldiers helpless and abandoned without anyone to care for them. That experience inspired him with the idea of establishing an international relief organization, whose members could be trained in peacetime so that when war broke out, they would be obliged to care for the wounded and sick.

This idea was expressed in his short book “Memories of Solferino” published in 1862. In 1863, Henri Dugan, together with General Guylom Henri Duphuy and three of his friends, including the jurist Gustave Moynier, the physician Louis Appia and the physician Theodore Maunoir, founded the International Committee for Aid to the Wounded Soldiers – the first international non-governmental organization in this field and the predecessor of the present International Committee of the Red Cross. In 1864, this Committee, with the persuasion of five kind-hearted people, organized an international diplomatic conference in Geneva with the participation of representatives from 16 European countries [45, p.40].

At the conference, each country agreed to establish a relief organization to support military medical services in wartime. This was also the first step in the formation of the Red Cross in each country. At the same time, these 16 countries signed a treaty stating that in future wars they would care for all sick and wounded on the battlefield, regardless of their nationality. The warring parties could recognize the neutrality of medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances by recognizing the symbol as a red cross on a white background and acknowledging the legal protection of the International Red Cross. That treaty is called the Geneva Convention .

The first Geneva Convention in 1864 with 10 articles and continued to be

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