Abstract/Summary

The chapter considers the interrelations between international refugee law (IRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL). It seeks to illustrate that, in displacement contexts, interactions between IHL and (global and regional) refugee protection regimes are both inevitable and challenging, due both to terminological, institutional, and structural divergences, and to their being specialised regimes designed to be invoked in (divergent) exceptional circumstances. The chapter queries whether IHL threshold of application and references to IHL terms-of-art such as ‘civilian’ should guide their (the OAU Convention, Cartagena, and EU Qualification Directive) interpretation. The chapter further considers the scope of application of IHL norms. In so doing, it appraises the significance of IHL classification, including the question who classifies conflicts. Its crux lies in appraisal of IHL displacement-related norms and the extent to which IRL interpretations affect them. It sheds light on protection gaps arising from classifications of conflicts and individuals, from sporadic references to IRL terminology (notably the term ‘refugee’) and from the distinction in terms of applicable norms and obligations between parties to the conflict and other (non-belligerent) states.