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THE EXISTANCE OF THE RIGHT TO HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE …
to humankind in any circumstances and at all times.50 Humanity means preventing
and alleviating human suffering, protecting life and health and ensuring respect for
human existence.51 The notion of humanity, or rather its recognition as an objective
and a principle of international law, can be found in legal instruments, especially in
the field of human rights and humanitarian law. It was with the development of the
latter and the provision of common article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that
the principle of humane treatment became an expression of general values that guide
the international legal system as a whole. 52 Humanity is also one of the founding
principles of the Red Cross Movement, aiming “to prevent and alleviate human suffering
wherever it may be found” and “to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the
human being.” 53
Humanity as a legal principle was recognized also in international case-law as
a guiding principle both in war and in peace. It was already in 1949 in the Corfu
Channel Case that the International Court of Justice referred to certain obligations
that were not based on a treaty but on “certain general and well-recognized principles,
namely: elementary considerations of humanity, even more exacting in peace than in war.” 54
Subsequently, in the Nicaragua v. United States of America case (1986), the International
Court of Justice again evoked the ‘elementary considerations of humanity’, underlining
that there were obligations incumbent upon the States that derive not only from treaty
law but also from the general principles of humanitarian law.55 If the principle of
humanity is applicable to both armed conflicts and peacetime, then it is also in the
event of natural disasters. As stated in the UN General Assembly Resolution 43/131,
the “abandonment of the victims of natural disasters and similar emergency situations
50 Trindade argues that States are no longer the sole subjects of international law, believing that humankind
has also emerged as a subject of international law and coexists with States. The author acknowledges
the recent advances in international law, which have been achieved by States themselves but only when
they placed the basic considerations of humanity and the general, superior interests of the international
community or humankind, above their own interests. In his opinion, contemporary international law
has been characterized to a large extend by the emergence and evolution of its ius cogens and a greater
consciousness in a universal scale of the principle of humanity. Ibid., pp. 60, 275.
51 Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)
(Judgment, Merits) ICJ Reports 1986, pp. 113-114.
52 ILC, Third report on the protection of persons in the event of disasters by Special Rapporteur, UN Doc
A/CN.4/629, para. 40. Ramcharan offers an interesting overview of the development of humanity as
a common heritage of mankind and a shared value in the major religious and philosophical traditions.
Ramcharan, B.G., Contemporary Human Rights Ideas, Routledge, London/New York, 2008, pp. 9-19.
53 Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, available at:
Pictet described humanity
as the most important principle within the Red Cross doctrine, determining the movement’s ideals,
motivation and objectives. He saw all other principles as flowing from this one, describing it as ‘an
essential principle’. Pictet, J., The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Peace, Henry Dunant
Institute, Geneva, 1984, p. 7.
54 Corfu Channel case (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Albania ) (Judgment) ICJ
Reports 1949, p. 22.
55 Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)
(Judgment, Merits) ICJ Reports 1986, pp. 112-114.