CYIL 2012

JAN ONDŘEJ

CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ

Introduction The parties of the armed conflicts do not have unlimited freedom as to the means and methods of leading the warfare. They are bound to follow the rules of the law of armed conflicts , today often referred to as the international humanitarian law , which expresses the basic requirements of the international law which lead to humanizing of the armed conflicts. 1. The relation of disarmament to the law of armed conflicts The law of armed conflicts does not require the states to have an obligation to liquidate certain arms, arm systems, ammunition, etc. The obligation to reduce the number of arms, to remove them, and to liquidate them or prohibit their development, as well as testing and production regulations, are contained in the rules of disarmament law. 1 Disarmament , i.e. reduction and liquidation of arms, is the most effective method of prevention of armed conflicts. The idea of restrictions of armament and creation of conditions for keeping real and lasting peace among nations was already contained in the Russian Czar Nicholas II’s Memorandum 2 of 1898. The Russian Czar proposed organizing an international conference which took place in the Hague in 1899 and resulted in signing the Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and other Conventions and other documents in the area of the law of armed conflicts. The foundation of codification of international law was initiated by this. The objectives expressed in the Russian Memorandum concerning the restriction of armament were not achieved at that time. Even in the time after the Second World War the restriction of armament and disarmament has progressed very slowly. So far, only limited disarmament in certain areas has been reached. Significant success was achieved in the 1990s when the Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons was concluded in 1993. On the basis of this Convention a whole category of weapons of mass destruction, i.e. the chemical weapons, shall be destroyed, which should be completed no later than in 2012. The relation between the law of disarmament and the law of international conflicts is expressed in the Convention in the sense that Article I explicitly forbids the use of chemical weapons, i.e. in an armed conflict. It would be optimal to reach a general and complete disarmament under effective international supervision. Unfortunately this objective is not realistic under the current circumstances, and we can even see a break in the process in the last ten years. 3 In spite of that some partial goals were reached. Among these is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines 1 Conf. Podrobněji k problematice odzbrojení in: Ondřej, J. Odzbrojení, prostředek zajištění mezinárodní bezpečnosti. 2. vydání. Plzeň : Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš Čeněk, 2008. 2 Conf. Ondřej, J. Význam Haagské mírové konference z roku 1899 pro vývoj práva ozbrojených konfliktů. Mezinárodní vztahy , 2000, č. 1, p. 29. 3 Conf. Ondřej, J. Odzbrojení na počátku 21. století – vzestup a pád. AUC IURIDICA, 2006, č. 3/2005, p. 47 a násl.

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