국제법상 자발적 인간방패에 관한 연구

Weaker parties in asymmetrical conflicts may resort to acts prohibited under international humanitarian law, such as the use of human shields. Confronted with overwhelming technological superiority, weaker parties have embrace shielding as a “method of warfare” designed to counter attacks against which they cannot effectively defend using the weaponry and forces at their disposal. Although the phenomenon of the human shields is not new, it has become familiar to the general public in recent years as a result of widespread media coverage. Specially, voluntary human shields challenge accepted norms that have treated the civilian as a passive subject of, rather than an actor in, armed conflict. Problems arising out of voluntary human shields directly attack ideas of cardinal principles of law of the armed conflicts, such as the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants and the principle of proportionality. Also, these problems make it more difficult to figure out which acts would be regarded as direct participation in hostilities. In this article, I have tried to look into the legal problems triggered by voluntary human shields in the field of international humanitarian law. This article first analyzes the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants for better understanding of problems concerning voluntary human shields. Second, I explore the general prohibition of the use of human shields found in various documents of international humanitarian law, such as Geneva Conventions, Protocols Additional to Geneva Conventions and Rome Statute. Lastly, I discuss the characterization of the conduct of voluntary human shields, with particular attention paid to the term ‘direct participation in hostilities’and the principle of proportionality.