The protection of international migrants between international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international refugee law

The chapter aims to analyse the interaction between international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international refugee law in the context of movements of persons, mainly caused by armed conflicts. As migrants may find themselves in a country involved in an armed conflict, and an armed conflict may determine exodus, international humanitarian law includes important rules for protecting migrants. Moreover, in times of armed conflicts and military occupation, refugee law and international human rights law continue to apply, as recognised by numerous domestic and international tribunals. Thus, all the mentioned provisions may provide specific protection, including against refoulement, to international migrants. On those grounds, the chapter will ascertain whether these normative systems relate to each other in terms of complementarity and crossfertilisation so that their interplay may result in the maximum protection of migrants’ rights.