ENVIRONMENTAL HARM FROM MILITARY OPERATIONS AND THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS

Finally, the paper examines the role of cooperation and the distribution of responsibilities among different actors in the protection of the environment in armed conflict. [...] The environmental dimensions of armed conflict are increasingly a focus of the international agenda,1 particularly in light of the mounting evidence connecting environmental harm and climate change to heightened security risks.2 This paper provides an overview of the relationship between the conduct of military operations, environmental harm, and the protection of civilians in armed conflict. [...] The extension of IEL to situations of armed conflict is context-specific, and depends on the content of the treaty, nature of the armed conflict, and type of military operation.97 International human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) continues to apply in situations of armed conflict and contains certain provisions that directly or indirectly address the protection of the environmen. [...] 49 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (1925); Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (1993); Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Wea. [...] 29; International environmental law treaties regulate inter alia the protection and preservation of the marine environment, prevention of marine and air pollution, protection and conservation of environmental areas, identification and safeguarding of cultural and natural heritage, regulation of nuclear damage, and the regulation of trade and conservation of endangered species.