Quotes about Conflict Law

Walter Cronkite

The invasion of Iraq was illegal from the start.

Peter Maurer

Ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law and principles is one of the key areas necessary to establish accountability chains.

Jeh Johnson

Under well-settled legal principles, lethal force against a valid military objective, in an armed conflict, is consistent with the law of war and does not, by definition, constitute an 'assassination.'

John Ashcroft

The main problem with applying the Geneva Convention to detainees is that it would interfere with effective interrogation.

There has always been some confusion in the case of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Geneva and Hague conventions are very clear when prisoners are official members of an state’s armed force with uniforms, insignia and ranks. It is also clear with respect to civilians. But the combatants of the insurgent and terrorist forces fall in between, and international law is less clear. The George W. Bush administration at first took the position that the captured combatants were not captured soldiers and were therefore not entitled to the treatment due that status. But the military regulations made no distinction as to how prisoners in combat should be treated. It is a very gray area, except that in either case, torture is illegal under U. S. and under International law.

Philip G. Alston

Outside the context of armed conflict, the use of drones for targeted killings is almost never likely to be legal.

Peter Maurer

The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law.

Chuck Todd

The president-elect [Donald Trump] himself in the interview with "The New York Times" says there is no law that governs conflict of interest in - with the president.

Peter Singer

The Pentagon said that these prisoners were kept in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and of course I was not reassured by that, but I couldn't prove that that was wrong; so we're clearer about that.

Walter Raleigh

The necessity of war, which among human actions is the most lawless, hath some kind of affinity with the necessity of law.

Jimmy Carter

We consider these settlements to be contrary to the Geneva Convention, that occupied territory should not be changed by establishment of permanent settlements by the occupying power.

Kofi Annan

Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents. Under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of the population falls on the occupiers.

Conflict Law Quotes