Anderson, Kjell --- "The Universality of War: Jus ad Bellum and the Right to Peace in non-International Armed Conflicts" [2012] ELECD 787; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The Universality of War: Jus ad Bellum and the Right to Peace in non-International Armed Conflicts

Author(s): Anderson, Kjell

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

3. The universality of war: Jus ad
bellum and the right to peace in non-
international armed conflicts
Kjell Anderson*

Much of the focus of the right to peace seems to be on the prohibition
on aggressive war. Yet peace, understood as the absence of hostility,
encompasses much more than the absence of aggressive war. In order for
peace to be fully realized the threat of war must also be removed through
measures such as arms control, confidence building, and mediation.
International efforts to prohibit war have focussed on aggressive wars
between states (the crime of aggression or `crimes against peace' as it was
dubbed at the Nuremberg Tribunal). Indeed, at Nuremberg all the crimes
charged required a nexus with the waging of a war of aggression. This
emphasis on international conflict stems from the state-centric model of
international relations that has predominated for centuries. States had no
interest in limiting power within their own domain ­ they only wanted to
make the international environment (and perhaps their own power) more
secure. However, most wars are now fought within states. Surely these
wars, with their often dire humanitarian consequences, are a violation of
the peoples' right to peace.
Both domestic law and international law recognize that there are situa-
tions where the use of violence may be legitimate. The right to self-defence
is present in both domestic criminal law and international law. Moreover,
in both the domestic and international spheres, it is recognized that
legitimate authorities may use force. ...