The legal status of animals in armed conflicts

Abstract

The protection of animals during armed conflict generates complex legal questions to address. The international community must address these issues at a time when, as a matter of law, their status as sentient beings has gained wider recognition at the national level. Just as the strengthening of human rights and the increased awareness of environmental challenges in the aftermath of World War II have had an impact on the development of IHL, the growing concern for the welfare of animals in recent decades, at least from the domestic law sphere of many States, should also progressively ensure the protection of animals as living creatures endowed with sentience, who can feel pain, distress and suffering, and therefore require the establishment of a legal status that goes beyond mere consideration as objects or goods.