ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter included in the part of this book entitled ‘The Vicissitudes of Armed Conflict and Detention’ is on those civilians and combatants who find themselves in the hands of the armed or security forces in an international or noninternational armed conflict. In order to discuss the issue of the right to life of detainees in armed conflict it is necessary to discuss two separate legal regimes that overlap in these situations, the protection of human rights and international humanitarian law. It is a regrettable fact of armed conflict that persons who find themselves in the power of the enemy are in grave peril. As an example there have been many suspicious deaths of civilians in United States and United Kingdom custody in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Human Rights First 2006; Shamsi 2006).1 However, the dubious circumstances of one death involving military forces of the United Kingdom – that of Baha Mousa in Iraq – has resulted in several years of litigation in the courts of the United Kingdom and can serve as a case study of the applicability of both regimes (see also Simpson 2007).
