Armies urged to integrate human rights in war laws

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) Armies waging counter-terrorism offensives should be forced to weigh the likely scale of civilian deaths and damage by conducting a ''human rights impact assessment'' in advance, an international think-tank proposes.

The idea from the EastWest Institute (EWI) amounts to a radical call to transform the way in which countries apply the laws of war.

It argues in a research paper that this approach, if applied to US operations in Iraq, Russian actions in Chechnya or last year's war between Israel and Lebanese-based Hezbollah, could have helped avert heavy civilian casualties that also handed propaganda victories to insurgents.

While acknowledging the proposal would seem ''radical if not ridiculous to many'', the EWI said conducting a human rights impact assessment (HRIA) would ultimately help the armies involved to avoid disastrous own goals.

''It's definitely in the military's own interests,'' Greg Austin, co-author of the report, said in a telephone interview.

According to the report, to be published shortly on the Web site www.ewi.info and made available to Reuters in advance, ''the predominant goal of an HRIA is to assess whether the ends justify the means''.

THREAT TO THE WEST In Iraq, the paper said, global perceptions that US and allied forces had shown insufficient regard for civilian casualties had causes a significant decline in the West's global 'soft power' influence, especially in the Muslim world.

''This deterioration represents a security threat to the West and undermines the common goal of preventing and defeating terrorism. If excessive force is used against a civilian population, the most moderate of people within those populations will tend to sympathise with terrorist causes.'' Conducting an HRIA would oblige commanders to apply an additional test beyond that of military necessity, and mark a move away from considering only ''what we can get away with'', said the paper, entitled ''Protect! Civilians and Civil Rights in Counter-Terrorist Operations''.

Austin acknowledged there would be practical difficulties over who should conduct the assessment and its impact on the timeliness of operations.

While the paper says the assessor should be someone apolitical and with no strong personal ties to the military, Austin said it would need to be someone integrated with the armed units on the spot.

He said the time taken to compile a report on a planned tactical operation could be reduced if strategists had already incorporated human rights considerations in their overall plan.

The report urged the European Union, many of whose member states have forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take the lead in implementing the HRIA concept in law.

The EWI, based in Brussels, Moscow and New York, is dedicated to increasing security by addressing threats to regional and global security.

REUTERS JT KN1731