Article 6 ICCPR and Article 2 ECHR are always applicable, but contain exceptions for lawful acts of war. Human rights law protects the right to life in both time of peace and time of war.
Instead, anyone not taking an active or direct part in the hostilities must be treated humanely, which includes respect for his or her right to life. In internal armed conflict there is no such group of protected persons. In international armed conflict, there are groups of protected persons (the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, prisoners of war, and civilians) who are protected from murder and inhumane treatment. These principles are applicable in both international and non-international armed conflict. Civilians have their lives protected through the principles of distinction and proportionality: the belligerent parties must distinguish between combatants and civilians, and only combatants may be attacked. The right to life is protected during armed conflict, through various provisions in IHL. The question is thus how these two branches of law influence each other, and if IHL can be considered lex specialis in relation to human rights law. Human rights law, which has codified the right to life in its main instruments, is applicable both in time of peace and in time of war, whereas humanitarian law is only applicable during armed conflict.
A thesis about the right to life in internal armed conflict must necessarily take both human rights law and humanitarian law into account.
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