THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS AS COMPONENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICTS

Armed conflicts, whether international or not, result in the degradation or even destruction of parts of the natural environment, including animals, vegetation, soil, water systems and ecosystems. In some situations, the impact may extend over large areas and continue for years or even decades after hostilities end. Although a certain level of environmental damage is inherent in armed conflict, it cannot be unlimited. As part of the environment, animals benefit from protection deriving from the principles and provisions of the law of armed conflict that provide direct and indirect environmental safeguards. The notion of environment, for the purposes of international humanitarian law, encompasses all animals (including farm and companion animals) and, in particular, wildlife and their habitats, as well as the relationship that these beings maintain with the ecological system in which they exist. Our work aims to examine and analyze the obligations of the rules contained in the law of armed conflict that protect the natural environment in order to detect the main ways of protection that can be applied to animals, as parts of the natural environment, to this regard. The interest in approaching this research topic lies in the love I have for animals and in the scarce doctrinal literature in Spanish that has been located on the subject.