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Of date palms and dialogue: Enhancing the protection of the natural environment under international humanitarian law and Islamic law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2024

Ahmed Al-Dawoody  and
Kelisiana Thynne
Ahmed Al-Dawoody*
Affiliation:
Legal Adviser for Islamic Law and Jurisprudence, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland
Kelisiana Thynne*
Affiliation:
Operational Legal Coordinator, International Committee of the Red Cross, Manila, Philippines
*
*Corresponding author email: aaldawoody@icrc.org
**Email: kethynne@icrc.org
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Abstract

Conflict-related environmental damage remains a huge challenge. This article provides a brief overview of international humanitarian law (IHL) rules that protect the natural environment in armed conflict and notes some convergences with the rules developed by classical Islamic jurists (those who lived from the seventh century up to the last quarter of the nineteenth century) affording protection to the natural environment. Today, a significant number of International Committee of the Red Cross operations take place in Muslim-majority countries, and some Muslim interlocutors, in particular Islamic non-State armed groups, use Islamic law as their normative framework. For better respect for IHL in relevant Muslim-majority States or territories, considering an Islamic legal approach to the protection of the natural environment alongside IHL would allow the parties to conflicts in such countries to better understand their obligations and should enhance the protection of the natural environment in armed conflict.

Keywords

conduct of hostilitiesenhancing respectimplementationIslamic lawIslamic contextsprotection of the natural environment
Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , First View , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of ICRC

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Footnotes

†

The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The authors thank Helen Gieseken Obregón, Anne Quintin and the anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts.

The advice, opinions and statements contained in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ICRC. The ICRC does not necessarily represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information provided in this article.

References

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2 Ibid.; ICRC, When Rain Turns to Dust: Understanding and Responding to the Combined Impact of Armed Conflicts and the Climate and Environment Crisis on People's Lives, July 2020, p. 30, available at: https://shop.icrc.org/when-rain-turns-to-dust-pdf-en.

3 Ahmed Al-Dawoody and Sarah Gale, “Protecting the Environment during Armed Conflict: IHL and Islamic Law”, Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, 3 June 2021, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2021/06/03/protecting-environment-armed-conflict-ihl-islamic-law/.

4 ICRC, Guidelines on the Protection of the Natural Environment in Armed Conflict, Geneva, 2020 (ICRC Guidelines), paras 1–3, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/guidelines-protection-natural-environment-armed-conflict-rules-and-recommendations-relating; ICRC, above note 2, p. 16.

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12 ICRC Guidelines, above note 4.

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18 ICRC Guidelines, above note 4, para. 18.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., Rule 5 and commentary, in particular paras 101–103.

21 Ibid., commentary on Rule 8, para. 135.

22 Ibid., Part II.

23 Ibid., Rule 13.

24 Ibid., Part III.

25 Ibid., Rule 2.

26 Ibid., Rule 3.

27 Ibid., Rule 4.

28 Ibid., Part IV.

29 Ibid., p. 16.

30 ICRC, Commentary on the First Geneva Convention: Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, 2nd ed., Geneva, 2016, para. 2750.

31 ICRC Guidelines, above note 4, Rule 1.

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33 ICRC Guidelines, above note 4, para. 44.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid., Rule 7 and commentary, paras 117–119.

36 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 32, Rule 17.

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40 ICRC, Strengthening Legal Protection for Victims of Armed Conflicts, Doc. 31IC/11/5.1.1, 2011, p 13, available at: www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/red-cross-crescent-movement/31st-international-conference/31-int-conference-strengthening-legal-protection-11-5-1-1-en.pdf.

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56 Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī, Al-Jāmiʻ li-Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, Vol. 8, Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, 2019, p. 7.

57 A. Al-Dawoody and S. Gale, above note 3.

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59 Ibid.

60 Ahmed Al-Dawoody, The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations, Palgrave Macmillan, New York: 2011, p. 131.

61 Muḥammad ibn ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Marsden Jones, 3rd ed., Vol. 3, Dār al-A‘Ialmy, Beirut, 1989, p. 928; M. ibn Al-Ṭabarī, above note 58, pp. 510–512.

62 See Muḥammad ibn Ishḥāq, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, ed. ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Hishām, annotated by Muḥṭafā al-Saqqā, Ibrahīm al-Ibyārī and ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ al-Shalabī, 2nd ed., Vol. 2, Muṣṭafā al-Babī al-Ḥalabī, Cairo, 1955, p. 182.

63 Raghib al-Sirjani, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, available at: https://shamela.ws/book/37369/570.

64 A. Al-Dawoody, above note 60, p. 102.

65 See: https://tinyurl.com/2bztefjs.

66 See “Animals’ Rights in Islam”, Islamweb.net, available at: www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/83830/animals-rights-in-islam.

67 Muftāḥ al-Hudā ibn Munīr al-Manṭiqī, Al-Mas'ūlīyah al-Jinā'īyah li-Murtakibī Jarā'im al-Ḥarb fī al-Fiqh al-Islāmī, Dār al-Ma'mūn lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ, Amman, 2007, p. 112.

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71 ICRC, above note 45, p. 21.

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73 PERAC Principles, above note 17.

74 A. Al-Dawoody, above note 60, p. 17.

75 ICRC and Government of Switzerland, State Expert Meeting on International Humanitarian Law: Protecting the Environment in Armed Conflicts: Chair's Summary, 2023, p. 15, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/chairs-summary-report-state-expert-meeting-ihl-protecting-natural-environment-armed.

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77 ICRC, above note 45, p. 65.