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IBA War Crimes Committee Conference 2025: Law on the frontlines

4 Apr - 5 Apr 2025

Session information

When norms fail: impunity’s impact on international law

Saturday 5 April (1015 - 1130)

Description

This panel will examine the existential threat posed by failures to hold states or individuals accountable for egregious violations of the core principles of international humanitarian law (IHL), namely: proportionality, humanity, necessity and distinction. In short: can the norms of IHL survive an environment in which abominable acts of mass violence are met with blind eyes or tacitly defended by state authorities? Does failure to hold perpetrators to account raise the prospect of Total War with the only rule being ‘might over right’?

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