Derecho de guerra y alteridad

Description

Defining the rights of alterity or otherness is a fundamental pursuit for the culture of tolerance and the protection of human rights. The International Red Cross has made the proposition that laws of war have always existed in practice and delimited these rights, and as such can be considered an absolute minimal conceptual framework for their defense. Analyzing an historical example from Mesoamerica the author contrasts this legal framework with actual practice through several examples. The study of those norms that specify causes that legitimize armed conflict is distinguished from those rules that control combatant behavior during the fighting, and are both compared with the corresponding European legal tradition. The discussion makes the proposition that in all the studied cases the laws of war can be considered, as Danilo Zolo has written, a “victor’s justice”. The protection of the rights of alterity was not and is not the purpose of these rules, and therefore they should not be employed for this purpose, which would be better served by strengthening international instruments make them more effective and efficient means. Sumario: Introducción. I. La antropología y el Derecho de Guerra. 1. Guerra, Estado e imperio en Mesoamérica. 2. Sistemas jurídicos de la guerra. II. Causas y justificación de la guerra. 1. Concepción de la Guerra Justa y conflicto legítimo en Occidente. 2. La justificación del conflicto armado en Mesoamérica. 3. Declaración de guerra y movilización. 4. La guerra justa entre la teoría y la práctica. III. Hostilidades y trato a combatientes y no combatientes. 1. Los límites del Derecho de Guerra durante los conflictos. 2. Guerra, sociedad y cultura. IV. Derecho de Guerra y alteridad. V. Anexo. Cuadro 1. Normatividad: Causas y justificación de la guerra. Cuadro 2. Normatividad: Conducción de las hostilidades. VI. Bibliografía.