PIL Discussion Group: Humanitarian displacement? The (mis)appropriation of humanitarian principles to justify mass displacement

Forcible displacement, a far too common phenomenon in contemporary armed conflicts, inflicts significant harm on individuals and entire communities. International humanitarian law (IHL) prohibits forcible displacement in occupied territory and non-international armed conflict. However, the field of application of the prohibition is disputed, as is the relationship between the prohibition and the duty to take precautions, leaving scope for parties to armed conflict to argue that causing the displacement of civilians is not only lawful, but legally required. This talk serves as an impetus to clarify the law, both with respect to the field of application of the prohibition of forcible displacement, and the extent to which the non-consensual relocation of civilians may be prohibited under the IHL rules on the conduct of hostilities. Ideally, this will reduce the space for belligerents to misappropriate humanitarian principles to justify mass displacement.

Eitan Diamond is an international lawyer with over twenty years’ experience specializing in international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law, primarily in the Israeli-Palestinian context. He serves as Manager and Senior Legal Expert at the Diakonia IHL Centre in Jerusalem, on the managerial boards of the NGOs Public Committee against Torture in Israel and Parents against Child Detention, and on the editorial board of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies.

Eitan has previously worked, inter alia, as an expert consultant for UNICEF, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and at the research centre Forensic Architecture; as Executive Director of the NGO Gisha; as a Legal Advisor for the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Israel and the Occupied Territories; and as Researcher and Legal Advisor for the NGO B’Tselem.

Eitan also engages in academic research. His academic qualifications include a PhD from the Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law; an LLM in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science where he was a Chevening Scholar; and an LLB from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a recipient of a Diploma in Human Rights awarded by the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute.

Ellen Nohle is a Senior Legal Advisor at Diakonia IHL Centre, Jerusalem Desk. She previously worked as legal operational advisor for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva and in Afghanistan and as a political officer for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most recently in Mali. Ellen Nohle obtained her doctoral degree in law from Yale University (JSD) in 2023, researching the tension between restrictions on war powers and the duty on soldiers to comply with military orders. At Yale, Ellen was a Hansell Fellow at YLS Center for Global Legal Challenges and a 2021 Cutler Fellow.

Ellen also has a BCL from the University of Oxford and a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge, graduating with honours. She has an MA in International Law and Settlement of Dispute from the UN-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. She has published in international law journals on topics of international humanitarian law, human rights law and international dispute resolution.