Exploring the Role of Religious Actors in Generating Respect for the Laws of War: A Common Article 1 Perspective

In addition to religious personnel, who are directly involved in armed conflict, religious actors, as key actors in our community, have a significant role in respecting and ensuring respect for the laws of war. They are, both in and outside conflict, powerful agents for promoting international humanitarian law awareness and compliance, and ultimately, they can contribute to conditions that ensure greater respect for international humanitarian law. By virtue of their positions, they may have a direct opportunity to influence the positive or negative behaviour of members of the armed forces in their compliance of IHL; communicate directly with those affected by conflict; or be present within the diaspora of a community who are directly affected by the conflict. Other religious actors, spatially and temporally removed from the conflict, will have a role in the broader community conversation around ensuring respect for the law in armed conflict, without having specific linkages to any particular conflict. Through these different roles, religious actors have great leverage to use their influence for humanitarian ends. This role must be both encouraged by, and facilitated by, the State. In this way religious personnel, and religious actors more broadly, can contribute to reducing the humanitarian impacts of the global crisis of armed conflict.