IRRC No. 871
The relationship between international humanitarian law and human rights law from the perspective of a human rights treaty body
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The debate about the simultaneous applicability of international humanitarian law and human rights affects also human rights treaty bodies. The article firstly considers the difficulty for a human rights body of determining whether international humanitarian law is applicable; second, it examines the problems in practice in applying the lex specialis doctrine and the question of derogation in this particular context. The author finally outlines the impact of the debate as to the extent of extraterritorial applicability of human rights law.