INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND MODERN WARFARE TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The article examines the application of international humanitarian law norms to modern warfare technologies taking into account the experience of the armed conflict in Ukraine. The compliance of the legal regime for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber means of warfare and autonomous weapons systems with the basic principles of international humanitarian law – distinction, proportionality and military necessity, enshrined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977 – is analyzed. The provisions of Article 36 of Additional Protocol I of 1977 regarding the obligation of states to carry out legal review of new types of weapons and methods of warfare are examined, and the degree of compliance with this obligation by States Parties under contemporary conditions of rapid technological development is assessed. The discussion on the legal regulation of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) within the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980 and the activities of the Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems are considered. The problem of qualifying cyber operations as a means of warfare in the context of international humanitarian law is defined, and the provisions of the Tallinn Manual on international law applicable to cyber operations (Tallinn Manual 2.0) are analyzed. Based on the experience of the armed conflict in Ukraine, in particular the large-scale use of strike drones and cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure, the necessity of adapting the norms of international humanitarian law to the realities of technological development while preserving fundamental humanitarian guarantees and the principle of human control over decisions regarding the use of lethal force is substantiated. Prospects for further codification of IHL norms concerning new warfare technologies are identified.