Once More Unto The Breach: The Deployment of British Soldiers Overseas and the UK's Human Rights Obligations

It is an unfortunate reality of armed conflict that individuals caught up in hostilities - civilians and combatants alike - are exposed to heightened risks of serious physical and psychological harm. Those who are sent to, or indeed those who are unfortunate to reside in areas of conflict, are often victims of crimes under national law or, if sufficiently grave, international crimes. At the same time, soldiers deployed to areas of conflict are confronted with unimaginable horrors and are forced to make immediate decisions which carry the gravest of consequences for others and for themselves. It is equally disturbing that combatants belonging to one side that commit crimes, invariably those serving in the armies of States, are sometimes not punished as severely as their crimes may demand, some may only be prosecuted decades after the events took place, and some may even escape justice entirely.