IX Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2017

The history of mankind has about a thousand years of its existence. Swiss historian Jean-Jacques Babel estimated that from 3500 BC to the present day the recorded history has witnessed only 292 years of peace and few of those were ever so storied as the years of conflict¹. According to this researcher for 6 thousand years of its existence mankind has experienced 14 thousand 513 wars, which killed three billion, six hundred and forty million inhabitants of the Earth². These figures are not optimistic inthe humanity worldwide. A man is wars to realize different purposes: political – to give power to a certain regime or party; economical – to annex new resource-rich territories; liberating – to shield the fatherland from an attack, to defend it from the aggressor. All these war goals can be implemented only through the enslavement of the other parties to the conflict. This is the horror and inhumanity of any war.

The 20^th century was one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind. The First World War (1914-1918) claimed the lives of 15 million people, the Second World War (1939-1945) - 66 million people³, etc. Thus, humanity faced the problem of taking appropriate steps to ensure and realize the natural right of everyone to life.

The idea of maximizing individual liberties became open to discussion in the society. The United Nations Organization founded in 1945 and aimed to bring peace to all nations of the world decided to draw up agreements of human rights. The Commission on Human Rights was made up of 18 members from various political, cultural and religious backgrounds⁴. After hard work the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948. It has become a fundamental document that ‘states basic rights and fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled’⁵.

One of the core values of the Declaration is the right to life. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration proclaims that ‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.⁶’ This right is guaranteed to everyone without distinction as on gender, race, religion, nationality, language, race or any other grounds of discrimination.

The Geneva Conventions for the protection of War Victims (August 12, 1949) and their Additional Protocols are ‘international treaties that contain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war. They protect people who do not take part in the fighting (civilians, medics, aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (wounded, sick and shipwrecked troops, prisoners of war)’⁷. Article 1 of the Convention ‘establishes as the basic theme of all the conventions the undertaking of the parties to respect and insure respect for the conventions in all circumstances’⁸. These obligations should be applied in cases of declared war or of any other armed conflicts that may grow between the negotiating parties, even if one of them does not recognize the state of war.

However, after all the measures and agreements appealing to the world community for peace, for freezing any military actions as a way of dispute solutions, 21^st century faces new armed conflicts. According to the Armed Conflicts Report 2008, ‘there were 30 armed conflicts in progress in 26 different countries in 2007’⁹. Nowadays we can witness wars in Africa and the Middle East countries: Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Gaza, Syria, Iraq. In April 2014 a war broke out in eastern Ukraine. All these wars and armed conflicts have led to thousands deaths. That’s why, these are the regions where the problem of protection and implementation of the law relating to human life is immediate.

To conclude, it should be noted that although there are norms aimed at protecting the right of everyone to life (both in the time of peace and in wartime) we witness violation of conventions and declarations. The International humanitarian law seeking, ‘for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict’¹⁰, is not applied properly. The world community needs to learn how to respect human right to life in the context of globalization.

We should always remember: THERE IS NO WAR IN THE NAME OF PEACE. THERE IS NO DEATH FOR THE SAKE OF LIFE.

1 See: Charles Phillips, Alan Axelrod. Encyclopedia of Wars. New York. 2005. , p. xxii, https://ru.scribd.com/doc/192898928/Encyclopedia-of-Wars-Charles-Phillips-Alan-Axelrod

2 See: V. Gakov. For fear of war. / Round the world. July 1983.

3 See: Wars of the XX century. http://mostinfo.su/28-voyny-hh-veka.html

4 See: History of the Document. http://www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/history-document/

5 See: What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/what-universal-declaration-human-rights

6 See: Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

7 See: The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols. https://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions/overview-geneva-conventions.htm

8 See: Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims. / Report of the committee on foreign relations

On executives d, e, f, and g. Eighty-second Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/GC-senReport.pdf, p. 5.

9 See: War in the 21st century. p.14. https://newint.org/books/no-nonsense-guides/arms_trade_chapter_1.pdf

10 See: What is International Humanitarian Law? https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/what_is_ihl.pdf

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